Government is short of almost $150 million for its pension fund for former police, firemen and public sector workers.

But the Accountant General, Anthony Richardson, said that there was no fear that former or present Government workers would not get their full pension due to the shortfall.

In accounts presented by the Minister of Finance Eugene Cox on Friday at the House of Assembly, the figures for the Public Superannuation Fund 1998 revealed that it was underfunded by $146.7 million.

But as the pension is guaranteed by the consolidated fund, Mr. Richardson said that all pensions have to be met as a statutory obligation.

And the pension scheme, which is for Government workers, failed to get a clean bill of health from Larry Dennis, the Auditor General. In the auditor's report Mr. Dennis said: "I have been unable to obtain adequate assurance that the actuarial valuation on which the obligation for pension benefits was based, was performed in accordance with the relevant professional standards.'' Mr. Richardson said that the way in which the actuarial studies were carried out would be changed in the future in response to those concerns.

He added that the figures for 1999 were with the Minister of Finance at the moment and the office was presently working on this year's figures.

"The accounts for March 2001 are not yet available, but we anticipate that when they are there will be a significant change in the number ($146.7 million) as a result of investment returns and a revised actuarial study.'' George Outerbridge, Assistant Accountant General, said that the missing money from the fund "was not real'' and the pension fund was in a healthy state.

He said: "The $146.7 million is the present value if everybody who is eligible for pensions retired today, but that is a very unlikely scenario. It is its present value and we have to account for it, but it is not real. The fund does have lots of money to pay for its pension obligations.'' According to Mr. Richardson the short-fall in pension funds was due to a change in the pensions scheme in 1979, when the pension went from non-contributory to contributory.

Then the pensions became a defined-benefit scheme worked out by a formula which combines a percentage of how long somebody has worked with a final salary.

The Government used to pay the whole amount, but now matches the five percent paid by the employee.

Mr. Richardson said: "It is not unusual for unfunded liability pension funds to have a deficit.'' The net assets of the fund for 1998 are $235 million, up $45.5 million or 24 percent on the year before.

The fund made $21.5 million from gain on sale of investments, up from $14.4 million the year before, and $28.1 million from total investments, compared to $20.1 million in 1997.

During 1998 employees and Government contributed $9.46 million each to the fund, and the Government also made a special payment of $500,000. The total increase in assets stood at $71.01 million, up 85 percent on 1997.

The fund paid out a total of $21.1 million in pensions, $16.7 million in monthly payments and $4.1 million in lump sum payments and capital sum payments of $0.24 million.

A year earlier in 1997, monthly payments were at $15.6 million, lump sum payments at $4.5 million and capital sum payments at $0.254 million.

Administration expenses were $1.1 million and refunds $1.8 million, interest cost $1.3 million and interest on refunds was $0.21 million, with the total decrease in assets for 1998 standing at $25.5 million, compared to $23.96 million the year before.