Pension Funds Adjudicator, Professor John Murphy, has warned retirement funds to co-operate with his office or pay up.
Murphy was speaking at the Pension Lawyers Association's quarterly briefing, hosted by Sanlam Employee Benefits in Cape Town this week.
Because of work overload, he says, he has been forced to change the way he deals with the 100 or more complaints he receives each month. Hearings will become the exception rather than the rule; determinations will be shorter and the focus of the office will shift from a traditional adversarial approach to an investigative approach.
This, Murphy says, will require a much higher degree of co-operation from retirement funds.
Although retirement fund officials have generally responded well to his investigations, the information provided has sometimes been inadequate. This has required the investigating team to go back for more information and Murphy now warns that there is a limit to how much fishing he is prepared to do.
It is up to the retirement fund to justify its conduct and rules. A fund which fails to do so will lose its case, he says.
"In our standard letter to pension funds, we have made it plain that they must deal with disputes fully because if they fail to do so, the complaint will be decided on the submissions and arguments made."
Retirement funds should regard a query from Murphy's office as an opportunity to state their case, he says, and if they do not make the most of that opportunity, he will decide against them.
Murphy says that his new approach will be quick, informal and more accessible, but some may regard it as being at odds with the Constitution, which entitles everybody to have their disputes resolved in a fair public hearing.
"My response, in desperation, is that the Constitution should not be interpreted to impose overly restrictive constraints upon the activities of the Ombudsman, particularly in a developing world."
"We need to develop alternative forms of access to justice."