PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
19 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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to pay more than its fair share of the officer's pension. A modified scheme, however, was drawn up in 1870, which has now been adopted in a large number of Colonies,* but which has not been applied to Colonial Officers transferred to the Home Service. Under this scheme, while the pension awarded by each Colony is based upon the length of service in that Colony and upon the final salary drawn in that Colony, the Government under which the officer finally serves allows an addition of years to his service not exceeding :-
(a) one-third of his previous public service; nor
(b) two-thirds of his service in the final Colony, nor
(c) Seven years in any case (or five years in Colonies which are not unhealthy). This addition or previous experience bonus granted by the last employer was meant as a partial but not full compensation to the transferred officer for not getting his pension calculated on his whole service as though it were one; but the plan is somewhat arbitrary and works unequally-while in most cases the officer gets less pension that if he had served all his time under the Government from whose service he ultimately retires, yet it is possible in certain circumstances for him to get an actually higher pension. For instance, taking a simple case where the whole career of an officer is in healthy climates, if he has served for 25 years under one Govern- ment, ending with a salary of £900 a year, and is then transferred to a post at £1,000 under another Government, in which he serves eight years, he would under this plan get of £900+ of £1,000=£375+ £216 13s. 4d. = £591 13s. 4d. instead of % of £1,000 £550.
6. At a later date, in order to facilitate the transfer of officers between certain groups of Colonies, viz. :—
(1) Mauritius and Seychelles,
(2) The Straits Settlements, Federated Malay States, and Hong Kong, (3) The West African Colonies and Protectorates,
(4) Certain West Indian Colonies,
the principle of the 1869 circular was applied to each group separately, with the modification that the pension calculated on the total service is divided in proportion to the aggregate salary drawn in each Colony. This modification was intended to meet the objections raised by the Governor of Ceylon to the original scheme. The same principle has been adopted by Jamaica in respect of its own share of pension in all cases of mixed service.
7. In the East Africa, Uganda, Nyasaland, and Somaliland Protectorates the Rules under the Act of 1892 have been applied.
8. As it is in the interests of the public service to facilitate transfers between the services of different Coloniest and between the Home, Colonialt and Indian services, we are of opinion that steps should now be taken to make effective the principle of the 1892 Act, viz., that an officer who has served under more than one Government should be entitled to the same pension as if his whole service had been in the office from which he ultimately retires, subject, however, to the proviso that any addition to pension grantable in respect of one post only should be based only on the length of service in, and on the salary received in, that post.
9. We recommend therefore that where a reciprocal arrangement can be arrived at between the Governments concerned, as to pensions for mixed service, it should be provided that the officer should be entitled (i) to an ordinary pension on the whole service calculated on the basis of one-sixtieth of the final salaryf in respect of each year of service, and (ii) to an additional pension in respect of that part of the service, if any, which is spent in unhealthy climates or in a post carrying pension at a higher rate than one-sixtieth; such additional special pension to be calculated on the number of completed years of service, and on the salary received. in such
• Viz., Mauritius, Seychelles, Straits Settlements, Federated Malay States. Hong Kong, Fiji, British Honduras, Leeward Islands,_Windward Islands, Trinidad, Turks and Caicos Islands, St. Helena, Gibraltar, Malta, Cyprus, Falklands and Weihaiwei.
The word Colonies" or "Colonial" here and elsewhere in the Report is meant to include, unless the context otherwise shows, Protectorates and other Administrations (such as Cyprus, Weihaiwei, and the Federated Malay States) which are controlled by the Colonial Office.
The words "final salary" here and in other parts of the Report mean the salary of the permanent office held by the officer at the date of retirement (or transfer) if he has held such office or an office with the same salary, for a period of three years immediately preceding such date, otherwise it means the average amount of the salary of the permanent offices held by the officer during the three years immediately preceding his retirement (or transfer).
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unhealthy climates or in such special post, and on the basis of the excess over one- sixtieth which is allowed in such cases.
10. We recommend that the share of the ordinary pension falling on the first of the employing Governments should be limited to an amount based on the salary drawn at the date of transfer, and on the number of completed years of service up to that date; and that any increase of pension, whether through the subsequent com- pletion of a broken year or through an increase of salary, should fall on the sub- sequent employing Government or Governments, who will have enjoyed the benefit of the officer's previous experience, and will then only be giving him the same addition to pension as to an officer of the same standing in its own service. On the other hand the whole of the additional pension should fall on the Government or Governments in whose service it has been earned.
11. The share of the ordinary pension payable by the second and each sub- sequent employing Government would thus be the difference between the pension accrued at the date of transfer (or retirement) from its service and the pension accrued at the date of transfer to its service; that is to say, it would be equal to the pension accrued in respect of the service under that Government taken separately, together with any increase of the pension in respect of the previous service arising from a subsequent increase of salary or the completion of a broken year.
Illustration. If an officer has served under three Governments, A, B, and C for periods of a, b, c respectively: where a is the number of complete years of service under A, b, the number of complete years of service under B (including any fraction of a year's previous service not reckoned in ), and c, the number of complete years of service under C (including any fraction of previous service not reckoned in a or b); and if his final salary under each Government has been x, y, and z respectively, his total ordinary pension would be (a + b + c) z
and
• 60
A's liability in respect of the pension would be ; B's liability would be
a x 60
(a + b) y-ax, and C's liability would be (a + b + c) z _ (a + b) y
60
ران
60
60
If, however, the service under A was in an unhealthy Colony which calculates pensions on fortieths, instead of sixtieths, and the service under C was in a service which calculates pensions on fiftieths instead of sixtieths, the officer would be entitled to additional special pension from A of :—
and a further additional pension ¡rom C of :—
B X
(40-60)=120°
11 X
el z
(50
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c1 z
60 300
receive an
where c' is the number of completed years under C (not including any fractions of previous service).
12. Cases might possibly arise where an officer draws a lower salary in his last appointment than in one of his previous appointments. In such exceptional cases provision would have to be made for calculating separately the pension in respect of such lower paid service.
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13. We recommend that the proposals in the foregoing paragraphs should be applied to cases of officers transferred between the Home, Colonial, and Indian services, and generally to cases of officers transferred from one public office to another, public office" being defined for this purpose as in section 4 of the Superannuation Act of 1892, subject to the insertion of the words or controlled" after the word administered in subsection (e) in order to provide for such cases as that of Zanzibar.
14. It is possible that some of the Governments concerned may not agree to the reciprocal arrangement now proposed. In that case the pensions of officers with mixed service partly under these Governments will, of course, continue to be cal- culated in separate parts, in accordance with the ordinary pension rules of each of the Governments in question.
15. Accordingly, we recommend that no hard and fast regulations should be included in the Act to be passed in substitution for the 1892 Act, but that the Act should be of an elastic nature, providing for the grant of pension for mixed service consisting of such parts as the Treasury and other Departments concerned may determine, subject to the condition that the total pension, except in the case referred to in paragraph 12 above, does not exceed that which would have been payable if the whole service had been in the last employment nor in any case two-thirds of the highest salary drawn by the officer. The principles by which the Departments con- cerned would be guided could be included in Rules to be made from time to time
under the Act.