The backlog of retirement benefits for the teachers and employees of educational institutions under the Monthly Pay Order system has increased in recent years.
Education ministry officials blamed the misappropriation of the funds and delay in the deliveries of the pensions for a few months since August 5, 2024, when the Awami League regime was ousted from power amid a mass uprising, for the situation.
Currently, around 83,500 applications are pending with two authorities working to provide retirement benefits to the MPO teachers and employees of the non-government secondary schools, colleges, and madrassahs.
Planning adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud who is also a former education adviser said on March 3 at the National Economic Council meeting that Tk 7,000 crore to Tk 8,000 crore of teachers鈥� pensions had been misappropriated.
Since August 5, 2024, the distribution of pension facilities remained stopped for about five months due to vacancies in top positions of the authorities.
Some of the sufferers alleged that it took them three to five years to get these benefits, and many of them had to lobby the officials to get their benefits.
Some officials of the board and the trust blamed underhand dealings during the AL regime for favouring some partisan teachers.
Currently, the Non-Government Teacher Employee Retirement Benefit Board and the Non-Government Teacher Employee Welfare Trust are separately providing one-time allowances after the retirement of teachers and employees under the MPO system.
At present, 44,500 applications are pending with the Retirement Benefit Board, while around 39,000 applications are pending with the Welfare Trust for disposal.
Between January 2022 and February 9 this year, 36,000 new applications were submitted to the board. 8,500 applications were pending with the board till 2021, officials at the board said.
In August 2023, a total of 66,000 applications were pending with the two authorities 鈥� 38,000 with the board and 28,000 with the trust.
According to the Bangladesh Education Statistics 2023 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, 3,96,368 teachers and 1,36,036 employees are working in 28,655 non-government schools, madrassahs and colleges across the country.
Wahiduddin Mahmud, at a ceremony held at the secretariat on Wednesday, said that the MPO teachers鈥� demand for their pensions was the most just demand.
鈥楾heir funds had been intentionally kept in such a bank where there is no money now,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥榓nd some funds went to other places.鈥�
Mentioning five to six years鈥� backlog in the distribution of their pension facilities, he said that a fund had been created for them and more funds would be kept in the next national budget.
The board and the trust receive around 1,000 applications on average every month, officials said.
Shashimoddin, a retired employee of a school in Thakurgaon, said that he retired in September 2023 and applied for pensions in February 2024 but was yet to get any money.
鈥業 am very sick and I need money for treatment,鈥� he told 抖阴精品 on February 27 while waiting outside the trust.
Md Amirul Islam, a teacher who retired in January 2024, said that he applied for a pension after three months but had yet to get any money.
鈥楳any retired teachers died before getting their pensions and their family members had to go one place to another to recover the money,鈥� he added.
Alliance of the Associations of Teachers and Employees under MPO member secretary Principal Delwar Hossain Azizi told 抖阴精品 the retired teachers lived in inhuman conditions for not getting pensions in time.
鈥楥urrently, the board is working to deliver pensions to the applications submitted in 2021 and the trust is working on the applications submitted in 2022,鈥� he said.
After a pause of about five months, the benefits were being disbursed from both the board and the trust under the iBAS++ project since January 1 this year.
The retirement benefit board member secretary (acting) Md Jafar Ahmmed told 抖阴精品 on Wednesday that they needed an additional Tk 5,285 crore to dispose of pending 44,500 applications.
鈥楨very year, we have a deficit of Tk 480 crore,鈥� he said.
Jafar Ahmmed said that after August 5, 2024, the then board member secretary went into hiding and the distribution of the pension facilities remained stopped.
He said that the disbursement resumed in January, over a month after his joining in November 2024.
He said that it took around four years to get the facilities after submitting applications due to the backlog.
Jafar said that they had kept their funds in some state-owned banks and some private banks including the First Security Islami Bank PLC and the Citizens Bank PLC.
鈥榃e are now trying to bring out all of our seed money from the First Security Islami Bank,鈥� he added.
Sharifa Nasreen, secretary (routine duty) of the welfare trust, told 抖阴精品 on February 27 that they needed an additional Tk 3,700 crore to dispose of pending 39,000 applications.
She said that the trust鈥檚 activities to disburse benefits remained shut for almost seven months since August 5.聽聽
She said that she did not get the signing authority to disburse the pensions due to some official reasons.
She said that many teachers in the past got benefits easily compared to others due to underhand dealings.