SSNIT can deliver
Last Thursday, the Board of Trustees of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) commissioned Price WaterhouseCoopers to undertake an independent review and baseline assessment of the status of SSNIT as of March 31, 2017.
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The assessment will, among other issues, seek to achieve a review of the financial records of affairs of SSNIT to ascertain whether transactions conducted conform to established procedures for accepted standards and find out the true financial position of the Trust as of the said date.
Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor, the chairman of the board, is a results-oriented person who has always put nation above self and has at all times found public service as a means of contributing to national development.
Indeed as Minister of State, especially as Defence Minister, he left an indelible imprint that would be difficult to surpass. Most of the development projects he initiated were at no cost to the nation.
What it means, therefore, is that for as long as Dr Addo Kufuor sees the need to ensure that the SSNIT, which is the sole Tier 1 pension administrator and the largest non-bank financial institution in the country, contributes its quota to national development and gives contributors just returns on their investment, the board will do everything within it’s mandate to improve upon the operations of the Trust.
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To the average worker, the assurance by Dr Addo Kufuor that it is the objective of the board to ensure that SSNIT becomes a formidable financial institution to serve as a catalyst for national development means that the board will ensure the most prudent investment of the resources at the disposal of the Trust.
This will mean that the best interest of contributors would serve as the prime reason for any investment.
Workers must receive economic returns on their contributions which must equally be paid at the convenience of the beneficiary.
The operations of private pension schemes following the introduction of the Tier II pension scheme have clearly brought to the fore the injustice that SSNIT has meted out to contributors for the non delivery of statements of accounts to contributors.
The cost to contributors from the SSNIT managed pensions is far higher than that of the private fund managers.
It must, thus, not be difficult for SSNIT to regularly send to contributors statements of their accounts to enable them to follow through their future.
Indeed, such a development will even expose employers who fail to pay the contributions of their workers to their employees, such that the workers themselves would fight for their contributions to be remitted efficiently and effectively, to avoid the situation where SSNIT from time to time has to go to court to retrieve arrears from employers.
Recently, a company wrote to the SSNIT about an employee who was due to retire next year and sought assistance towards the processing of his SSNIT contributions.
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The SSNIT wrote back to the employer directing the worker to be sent to any district office without specifying which district office. The company was asked to copy the head office about any such introduction.
The natural question is why can’t the process be done at the head office level or why could the letter not be directed to the nearest district office to help the affected worker.
Meanwhile, the said worker regularly received his statement on his Tier 3 account from a private fund manager. These are some of the reasons why there is lack of public confidence in the SSNIT.
But knowing Dr Addo Kufuor and what he could do, there is the need for the public to bear with the board and see what PriceWaterhouseCoopers will come up with.
There may be a Midas touch with him. He and his board are definitely bound to succeed. As a medical doctor, he has brought the rudiments of his profession into the equation. It is imperative that thorough diagnosis is done before any prescription for solution.
The objective for the review and assessment is well-grounded and the findings and recommendations of the job would go a long way in putting the trust on the right path. Beyond that, Dr Addo Kufuor had given the promise that the findings that would emerge from the review would be shared with interested parties and the people of this country.
We must look forward to the audit firm conducting a thorough review and assessment which will help put the Trust on the right track with the necessary governance reforms aimed at putting the interest of the contributor at the centre of everything that the Trust does.
The action taken by the board is a worthy initiative that must be supported by all well- meaning Ghanaians, especially SSNIT contributors and beneficiaries.