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Finance Minister's Speech On Smith Commission Report On Conversion
Finance Minister's Speech On Smith Commission Report On Conversion
Extract from uncorrected record of proceedings in the National Assembly on 9th May
2018.
MOTION
WHEREAS the Commission of Inquiry was, in the opinion of the President, for
the public welfare;
Now therefore, The House is requested to take note of the Report of the
Commission of Inquiry into the Conversion of Insurance and Pension Values from the
Zimbabwe dollar to the United States dollar dated March 2017; as tabled by the
Minister of Finance and Economic Development.
The inquiry was conducted over an 18 month period from September 2015 to
March 2017 and covered a 20 year period from 1996 to 2014. A nine member
Commission comprised Mr. Justice L. G. Smith as Chairman, Ms. V. Mutandwa, Mr.
I. Chirume, Dr. G. Kanyenze, Mr. A. Daka and Mr. T. Maswera, Mr. B. Muchemwa,
Mr. M. Tarusenga and Mr. G. Dikinya who is now deceased and, may his soul rest in
peace.
This was appointed by the former President of Zimbabwe and it conducted the
inquiry. With reference to terms of reference of the commission Mr. Speaker Sir, the
Commission was mandated to investigate the following issues among others:
· To establish the total value, nature and type of assets owned by insurance
companies and pension funds;
· To assess the conversion methods and processes of insurance and pension
assets and liabilities to Unites States dollars;
· To assess the soundness of the industry and the role of the insurance and
pension sector in the economy.
Mr. Speaker Sir, with respect to the methodology used by the Commission, the
Commission in order to unpack the terms of reference conducted its investigations
through public hearings, meetings and workshops across the country and also
collected data through various means such as interviews, questionnaires and audio
recorded oral evidence among others. The institutions investigated included all
licenced life companies, pension fund administrators, pension funds, funeral assurance
companies, the guardians’ fund, the Government pension system and the National
Social Security Authority (NSSA). I am glad Mr. Speaker Sir, to advise that the report
of the Commission of Inquiry was gazetted on 5th March 2018 through General Notice
Number 149 of 2018, hence is now available for public consumption.
In brief Madam Speaker, let me give some highlights of the report. There were
concerns raised by the public, numerous complaints were raised by the public over a
number of pensions and insurance issues and I summarize these below.
With respect to insurance policy holders, they were unhappy with the small
benefits which were offered as the total value of the insurance policy paid as final
settlement in lieu of education policies, endowment policies or retirement annuities
which amounted to between US$10 and U$40.
Madam Speaker, with respect to major findings of the Commission, I will start
with total industry assets and their breakdown. The inquiry established that total assets
in the Insurance Pension Industry including NSSA worth about US$5, 13 billion in
December 1996, US$3, 69 billion in December 2008 and US$5, 1 billion in December
2014, have been disposed of. Asset values for the period, 1996 to 2008 are however,
understated due to the fact that big institutions such as Old Mutual, First Mutual, ZB
Life, Fidelity Life and Comarton Consultants failed to provide accurate, consistent
and reliable asset values for the period prior to dollarisation. The assets were mainly
invested in property and listed companies in order to hedge against inflation.
Contrary to the general perception in some quarters of the industry that most
assets were lost through investments in bonds and money market during the high
inflation period, such investments were however, very negligible during the period
2003 to 2008.
The reduction in asset values during the period prior to 2008 was largely
attributed to misappropriation of assets and excessive expense structures as opposed to
hyperinflation.
Madam Speaker, of particular interest is the revelation that 85% of the existing
assets in the insurance and pension industry were acquired prior to dollarisation in
2009, which implies that the majority of assets survived hyperinflation.
The inquiry revealed that loss of value in insurance and pension benefits was
mainly caused by macro-economic regulatory and institutional factors.
Madam Speaker, the removal of 25 zeros, that is currency debasing during the
period, August, 2006 to February, 2009 resulted in insurance companies and pension
funds technically extinguishing their obligations to policy holders and pensioners
without any actual payments being made. The industry players duly removed zeros on
promised sum-assured or pension benefits when the ZW$ currency was debased.
This resulted in abnormally low ZW$ benefit values, which upon conversion to
US$ were for some pensioners, as low as 5 cents and in most cases zero, despite
several years of contributing to pension funds.
Meanwhile, assets that were supporting insurance and pension liabilities were
transferred to shareholders of insurance companies or became surpluses in some
defined contribution pension funds. Madam Speaker, the exchange rate of US$1 to
Z$35 quadrillion, which was used when the ZW$ currency was demonetized in 2015
prejudiced Insurance, Policy holders and pensioners as it reduced the already
worthless ZW$ currency values that had been deposited in individual bank accounts to
just a few US cents or at a maximum of US$5.
Madam Speaker, regulatory failure on the part of Government and the regulator
for insurance and pensions was identified as having caused loss of value. Government
failed to guide the industry during the hyperinflation and currency debasing and
during the conversion of insurance and pension values when the economy was
dollarized. Furthermore, the delayed demonetization of the ZW$ currency resulted in
the various entities in the industry applying their own conversion methods which were
prejudicial to policy holders and pensioners.
On the other hand, IPEC, that is the commission responsible for insurance and
pensions, failed to conduct on site supervision and investigate its licensees, allowing
arbitrary insurance product terminations by insurance companies, poor investment
management practices, poor record keeping and failing to deal with predatory
administration expenses among other issues.
Madam Speaker, let me now highlight the key recommendations. With respect
to compensation of prejudiced policy holders, the Commission recommends
compensation of prejudiced policy holders and pensioners using assets that survived
hyperinflation in order to ensure that prejudiced members of insurance schemes and
pension funds get their rightful benefits whilst maintaining stability and confidence in
the insurance and pension industry. A compensation framework which takes into
account, standardized conversion process, that ensures fairness among providers of
insurance and pension services or products and consumers of such services and
products, is recommended for implementation as part of the post-inquiry
implementation reforms. The framework should take into consideration the
following;
2. Absence of standard guidance for conversion from ZW$ to US$ and;
On record keeping Madam Speaker, the inquiry observed that entities in the
industry do not maintain proper records, hence in most cases, the lack of data became
a hindrance and some issues could not be concluded due to lack of data. In order to
ensure mandatory record keeping since the industry is data intensive and requires
information to be kept over long periods of time, it is recommended to mandate
through legislation the insurance and pension industry a minimum period of 100 years
for the commencement of ICT supervision in the sector.
ACTURIAL GUIDELINES
Madam Speaker, the Actuarial Society of Zimbabwe does not regulate its
members and the regulator, over the years, has not issued comprehensive actuarial
guidelines on these matters. It is therefore recommended that IPEC should work with
the Actuarial Society of Zimbabwe to come up with actuarial uidelines and valuation
methods for assets and liabilities as well as regulating the professional conduct of
actuaries practising in Zimbabwe.
Madam Speaker, the exchange rate used in 2015 for converting for
demonetisation was prejudicial to pensioners and policy holders. The maximum an
individual could get was $5 and all insurance companies and pension funds received a
combined total of less than $135 000.00. The Commission therefore, recommends
that the demonetisation process be revisited in order to ensure a fair compensation of
insurance policy holders and pensioners.
With respect to our proposed amendments to the Insurance Act Chapter 24;7,
the Insurance Act provides for a maximum fine of level 14, or 5 years imprisonment
for operating an unregistered institution, which level is not dissuasive enough for
institutions that could abuse millions of dollars in public funds. The Commission
recommends amendment of the provision to provide for a maximum penalty to be
prescribed by the Minister from time to time.
Restriction of Cross-Directorship
Madam Speaker, the current legislation provides that the Commissioner should
notify a registered insurer in writing that he proposes to cancel its registration. It is
recommended that the word ‘proposes’ be replaced by ‘intend’ since the former has a
connotation of begging or seeking concurrence.
Madam Speaker, with respect to the fund’s communication with Pension Fund
members, a number of public complaints relating to inadequate communication with
respect to major changes in their pension funds such as conversion values from the
Zimbabwean dollar to the United States dollar, amendment of rules, change of fund
administrators, computation of benefits and contribution history were received.
Madam Speaker, the core principles for Pension Fund Regulation as espoused
by the International Organisation of Pension Supervisors require objectives of a
pension primary legislation to be clearly stated. The objectives of that are not clear,
hence it is recommended by the Commission that they explicitly provide for the
registration and deregistration of pension funds, provident funds and fund
administrators; regulation of pension funds, provident funds and management of
troubled pension funds, provident funds and fund administrators and dissolution; and
to promote and protect pension contributors’ and the rights of pensioners.
Currently, financial statements for the insurance and pension industry are not
standardised and camouflage critical information such as unsustainable operational
expenses through salaries and insider loans.
· grant a loan to, or invest more than 5% of the market value of its
assets in a party related to the sponsoring employer;
· grant a loan to a member of the fund or make any of its funds
acquire or hold shares or any other financial interests in another entity, which results
in the fund exercising over that entity”
The section stipulates with respect to annual reports by the Commissioner that
the Commissioner shall, at the end of each calendar year submit to the Minister a
report on the pension and provident fund business in Zimbabwe during that calendar
year. It is recommended that the provision should empower the Minister to prescribe,
in regulations, the minimum disclosure requirements in an annual report that is filed
by IPEC and should provide guidelines on the key parameters to be included in the
report. The mischief is that the current annual reports are skeletal and their contents
are determined by the regulator.
The Commission is of the view that the pension sector is unique in that it
touches on people’s life savings, hence the need for deterrent sanctions for non-
compliance with provisions of the Act or regulations.
For the purpose of monitoring and ensuring compliance, a new section is being
proposed to the principal officer of the fund or any authorised person shall, at the
times and in the manner and format prescribed, submit reports to the regulator and the
contributing employees.
Conclusion
HON. DR. CHAPFIKA: Thank you Madam Chair. I rise to propose that the
debate be adjourned on this topic. I say so because we met as a Committee, following
the submission, we met with the Chairperson of the Commission, Justice Smith and
his team who briefed the Committee on this issue and we have lined up other affected
stakeholders and we are treating this issue as urgent to ensure that we solicit their
views after which we will submit a response to the Hon. Minister’s presentation. I
therefore, propose that the debate be adjourned. Thank you.