‘The Pensions Department has issued a special circular informing all government pensioners countrywide to hand over certificates that prove they are alive, to their respective Grama Niladhari(GN) on or before February 15, 2019. Those who fail to submit those certificates would not be entitled to receive their government pensions after April 2019,’ Kurunegala District Senior Divisional Secretary(DS) W.E. Jayathilake said.
He was speaking at a meeting he had with Kurunegala District Grama Niladharies at the Kurunegala DS Office yesterday.
The Pensions Department has identified many frauds taken place during the past few years and accordingly, a sum of 20 million rupees of government funds are found to have been cheated by fraudsters annually.
‘Therefore, all Divisional Secretaries in the Kurunegala District have been instructed to look into this matter through their respective GNs as many relatives of pensioners who had died, had been found obtaining pensions of dead government pensioners for many years,’ he added.