The government has asked the Employees' Old-Age Benefits Institutions (EOBI) reasons for not signing agreement with National Bank of Pakistan even after a lapse of six months. The EOBI had acquired the services of NBP, in October 2006, for collection of contributions and pensions disbursement.
Since then bank's operation has been going on but legal formalities have not been completed. In a letter written to Ali Raza, President NBP, Brigadier Akhtar Zamin, EOBI Chairman said: "While switching over to NBP our endeavour was to provide relief to all the stakeholders of EOBI, specially the pensioners through superior services.
"However, in spite of lapse of more than six months and my frequent meetings with your team in your presence, things have not progressed well due to reasons best known to the persons at the operational level.
"As a result, the following major issues are still pending:
i) Signing of agreement
ii) Provision of details of Contribution Collection and Pension Payments as per Annexure-H of the agreement.
iii) Arrangements for monthly transfer of funds.
iv) Facilitations to pensioners."
The EOBI Chairman stated that the federal government had asked him about the reasons for not signing an agreement. He said he invited NBP officials to resolve the matter on April 12 but so far the issue has not been resolved and cash management is still being handled by the NBP, without any agreement.