The Protector of Citizens, Zoran Pašalić, stated that this institution receives a large number of complaints from citizens about the work of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PDIF) and that the biggest problems are the unreasonably long duration of the procedures, some of which last for several years, and the non-up-to-date registry of that fund.
"Some proceedings of the first and second instance authorities on citizens' complaints last for several years, which is why the PDI Fund is acting contrary to the provisions of the Law on General Administrative Procedure, according to which the pension decision should be delivered within a month or two at the latest", Pašalić said at the round table "Towards efficient administrative justice – old-age pensions".
"Based on the allegations from the complaints and the procedures carried out, we determined that the PDI Fund does not have proper records of paid contributions, the date of acquisition and termination of the insured status, the length of insurance, the amount of the paid contributions, which is why the Fund places the obligation of providing the necessary data on citizens, i.e. citizens are indebted with already paid contributions", said Pašalić at the meeting organized by the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) in cooperation with the German organization for international cooperation GIZ.
The Protector of Citizens also stated that some employees of the PDI Fund are violating the provisions of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance, which stipulate that the PDI Fund is obliged to provide professional assistance to citizens in the process of exercising the right to determine the years of service.
Pašalić said that he issued several recommendations to the PDI Fund in which it was recommended to keep accurate records of insured persons and paid contributions and to check the accuracy of the entered data, as well as recommendations to make decisions within the time limit provided by law and to issue, ex officio, a reasoned administrative act with a legal remedy regarding the amount of the prepaid pension.