Constitutional appointees’ age of pension reduced from 63 to 60 |29 December 2016

Constitutional appointees – namely Designated Minister, Speaker of the National Assembly, ministers and members of Parliament – will now qualify for a pension at the age of 60.

This will be possible now that the National Assembly has approved amendments to Section 8 of the Constitutional Appointees’ Emoluments Act to make this possible.

Vice-President Vincent Meriton presented the amendments in the Constitutional Appointees’ Emoluments Amendment Bill 2016 for consideration and approval in the National Assembly’s session on Tuesday afternoon.

Presenting the Bill, Vice-President Meriton noted that an appointee must have worked 48 months in order to qualify for the pension.

The amendments will also:

• enable an appointee to draw pension on reaching the age of 55 years if he or she has served for an aggregate period of not less than 144 months in any of the designated office;

• enable an appointee who has left office on medical grounds and been certified by an appropriate statutory medical board as to the mental or physical incapacity to hold the office for pension irrespective of his or her age;

• introduce provision to include under Constitutional Appointees ambassadors, high commissioners and other principal representatives of Seychelles;

• introduce provisions to cater for the salaries, gratuity and pension payments of the above.

Vice-President Meriton went on to explain that the amendments take into consideration the specific nature of the Constitutional Appointee’s job which requires high level of responsibility, a lot of stress, sacrifices as well as irregular working hours which can severely impact on their family and social lives.

“Members of the public and other individuals’ expectations of these appointees are very high and the outcome of their decisions, judgments, representation have very important impacts on decision-making in the country,” Vice-President Meriton stressed.

He went on to add that ambassadors and high commissioners and other diplomatic representatives also work very hard under difficult circumstances and often round the clock to ensure our country is well represented internationally and to ensure that our country benefits to the maximum from the agreements they negotiate and sign.

VP Meriton also informed the Assembly that work is underway to introduce a special pension for other groups of workers who are working tirelessly for their country and people namely teachers, doctors, nurses, police, firefighters…

“Very soon a Bill to that effect will be presented to the Assembly so it can be approved and be operational by July next year,” VP Meriton said.

The amendment generated a lot of debate from members of both sides of the house before being approved.