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The Sole Commissioner of the Judgement Debt Commission, Justice Yaw Apau, has called for an improvement in the processing of the benefits of pensioners so as to curtail the undue delays they experience in accessing their benefits. �Pensioners go through hell when they go on retirement and start processing their benefit. Some even die before the process is completed,� he said. Start process on time �Before a person retires, the institution knows that the person�s retirement is due and so why is it that the process is not started on time?�, he asked. Justice Apau said this when the Director of Administration of the Ministry of Health, Mr Hamidu Adakurugu, appeared before the commission in respect of a petition by two persons, Agnes Tawiah and Seth Adzah, who qualified for retirement under CAP 30 but had rather opted for a Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) package because of the delay in processing their retirement. Mr Adakurugu, in his response, had blamed the delays on bureaucracy but Justice Apau refuted that, saying �it is not bureaucracy or red tape but the people�. Justice Apau said there were people in the system who deliberately kept files that came to their desks and thereby caused delays in the process. Abuse of position �These people are abusing their positions. They use it to intimidate and frustrate others. They sometimes even make demands and forget that one day they will also go on retirement,� he said. On the substantive issue, Justice Apau declined going further into the case of Madam Tawiah when he was informed by Mr Adakurugu that she had also petitioned the National Labour Commission (NLC), which was looking into the matter. The NLC, he said, was like a court and that anyone who felt aggrieved by a decision of the NLC had the right to appeal at the Court of Appeal, saying �and so I will not go into the case.� The other person, Mr Seth Adzah, was due to appear before the commission yesterday.