THE Fiji National Provident Fund should have known that handling the payout of close to 12,000 pensioners would not be an easy task.
And it should have been better prepared before making payment announcements and promises, said the Fiji Labour Party in a statement.
FLP said scores of elderly pensioners were forced to spend scarce funds to travel to banks and wait in vain for payments.
"As it is their pension payouts have been reduced by half and now they are being forced to fork out scarce funds in bus and taxi fares day after day in the hope of receiving their payments from the fund," said party leader Mahendra Chaudhry.
"All we have been getting from the provident fund management in response are empty promises that payout will be made today or tomorrow.
"The truth is that FNPF rushed into this exercise without much thought or expertise."
Mr Chaudhary called on the FNPF management "to show more sensitivity towards the plight of seniors, the majority of whom are dependent on their pension payouts each month to put food on their tables and meet their other pressing commitments".
Fund CEO Aisake Taito, in an earlier statement, apologised for the delay in payments citing "process problems".
He said they had to manually process all pension folders and ensure appropriate clearances were obtained to mitigate all possible risks associated with manual payments before they were released.