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• Mr Isaac Bampoe-Addo (2nd left) addressing the media
• Mr Isaac Bampoe-Addo (2nd left) addressing the media

‘Transfer tier-two pension funds or face our wrath’

The Forum for Public Sector Registered Pension Schemes has given the government up to July 31, 2017 to resolve all outstanding issues concerning the deduction and investment of the tier-two pension scheme or face its wrath.

It accused the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) of failing to inform the government about the accurate indebtedness to the various schemes as per the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766) as amended by the National Pensions Act, 2014 (Act 883).

The Chairman of the forum, Mr Isaac Bampoe-Addo, gave the ultimatum after a meeting with members of the forum in Accra last Tuesday.

The meeting was to update journalists on the three-tier pension scheme, since its establishment in 2008 and its implementation, which started on January 1, 2010.

Membership of forum

The forum is made up of 12 unions and associations, including the Health Sector Workers Union, the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association (GRNMA), the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), the Ghana Physician Assistants Association and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT).

Others are the Ghana Hospital Pharmacists Association, the Ghana Association of Certified Registered Anesthetists, the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana (CCTG), the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOSAG) and the Judicial Service Staff Association of Ghana (JUSSAG).

Arrears

The forum called on the government to transfer all contributions deducted from January 1, 2010 to August 31, 2016, including penalties, as required by the law.

“Per Section 13 of Act 766, the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations is responsible for pensions and should remain as such. The NPRA is to ensure that the terms of settlement filed by the government and the forum at the High Court in February 2016 are complied with by all parties,” Mr Bampoe-Addo said.

He said the government had been delaying in the transfer of the monthly deductions to the custodian of the second tier, knowing well that any delay beyond the 14th of the ensuing month attracted penalty.

Background

Mr Bampoe-Addo recalled that in 2014 the forum resisted attempts by the government to place all government employees under one trust called the Pensions Alliance Trust.

“The strong resistance by the forum of public sector unions through demonstrations and strikes in 2014 drew the anger of our employer, who went to court to place an injunction on the strikes and also filed a statement of claim in court against the representative unions of  the forum of public sector unions,” he explained.

Independent schemes

Mr Bampoe-Addo said currently four independent schemes had been approved and licensed by the NPRA to handle the second tier occupational pension schemes for members of the forum in the educational, health, judicial and civil and local government services.

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