Azerbaijan, Baku, April 17 /Trend A.Akhundov/
Azerbaijani banks have already started issuing plastic cards directly to pensioners, whereas until now this process is carried out through the offices of the State Social Protection Fund (SSPF), SSPF Chairman Salim Muslimov told reporters on Tuesday.
It was one of the conditions of the tender for the purchase of works on the organization of pension payments by plastic card through the banking system, held by the state fund in February. Opening of tender bids took place on April 4.
"Under the terms of the tender, the new rules come into force on May 1, however, we decided that the banks have already begun the process of updating the plastic cards that have expired. There were middlemen in the process of issuing cards to pensioners, which creates conditions for the emergence of negative facts. Now cards are issued directly. This step was inevitable, and is one of the measures to combat corruption and increase transparency in the country. This process is new to the bank, so there are small difficulties on early stages, however, we will work together to try to overcome them," Muslimov said.
Muslimov noted that 90,120 pension cards expired in Sumgait, Absheron and 11 districts of Baku in March-April. Currently there is a rapid process of their change in the banks.
There is no problem in the manufacture of cards, they are ready and pensions for April are loaded on them, there is difficulty with their distribution. Review of documents, issuance of new pension cards require some time, so we ask retirees to be patient. Reason for the formation of queues at branches of banks was that the issue of pensions and the change occurred in the cards at the same time.
We were waiting for the completion of the tender on April 4, to find out which banks will update the card, and then it took a few days to prepare the new cards. In this regard change of the cards coincides with the period of pensions' issue," Muslimov said.
Muslimov added that ads with the addresses of branches of authorized banks are placed near ATMs so that pensioners know where to update the pension card.
"According to the results of the tender, the IBA, which won the tender for all 11 districts of Baku, will provide services for pensioners in Baku, as before," Muslimov said.
The main purpose of the announcement of the tender was to increase the number of authorized banks in the payment of pensions and social benefits. At present, the distribution of pensions and social benefits in the country is held by two authorized banks - International Bank of Azerbaijan and Kapital Bank.