Don't divert SSNIT funds into other areas

Business Page (lead) August 30/2008

Story: Charles Benoni Okine

THE Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has called on companies not to divert monies meant for social security payments into short term investments.
SSNIT said checks at some recalcitrant companies had indicated that although cheques were issued for the payment of workers contributions on time, such payments were either not made in full or no data was prepared on the contributions.
The management of SSNIT said this when they engaged Chief Executive Officers of various companies and institutions in the country at a breakfast meeting in Accra yesterday to discuss pertinent issues relating to companies.
They said the practice made it difficult for the Trust to credit the accounts of the beneficiaries.
The allegation was made in the face of the challenges the Trust was facing with non-compliance of the laws governing social security contributions of employees.
Key on the agenda was a discussion on the refusal or otherwise of some companies to submit data on the employees on whose behalf monies were paid at the end of every month to the Trust.
The presumption was that such a move was one of the modus operandi of the schedule officers to outwit the authorities to enable them to invest part of the contributions in their names over the short term.
There have been persistent complaints lately from new pensioners about their inability to access their contributions from the Trust when their period was due.
At the meeting, which was attended by the Managing Director of Cal Bank, Mr Frank Adu, Mr Jude Arthur of the First Atlantic Bank and Mr Yaw Atuahene, Managing Director of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB), among others, the Director-General of SSNIT, Mr Kwesi Osei, said the payment of contributions of workers of companies without data was posing serious challenges for the Trust.
He enumerated some of the problems associated with the practice as the inability of the Trust to credit the accounts of the contributors, inability to issue account statements to contributors, difficulty in processing pensions of beneficiaries and the inability of such people to access the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS).
“What we want the employers to know is that much as it is an offence to refuse to submit such data to accompany the money, it is equally denying employees who have toiled for many years in employment their right to a better future,” he added.
Mr Osei said, for instance, that in 2007, 12 per cent of social security contributions could not be credited because of lack of data as against that of 10 per cent the previous year, adding that although last year was an improvement compared to 2005, which was 18 per cent, the practice was not acceptable.
He said there were other cases where the contribution reports were submitted but the reports could not be used for crediting members due to invalid numbers and contributors without social security numbers.
“Furthermore, the current system of determining the actual amounts owed after inspections have been conducted is not helping employers, particularly those who are not regular with payments, because of its attendant high indebtedness,” The Director-General said.
“This must not be taken for granted because it has grave consequences not only for the employees but the Trust itself,” he added.
To this end, Mr Osei said the Trust would be introducing a monthly billing system christened Employer Monthly Account Reconciliation (EMAR) to help employers to know the estimated indebtedness on a monthly basis.
He said the move would enhance the integrity of data on members of the scheme and noted that for the programme to be successful, there was the need for the registration of all workers with valid social security numbers, update of employer/employee records, submission of contribution reports on a monthly basis and regular payment of contributions.
Reverend Kweku Osei-Bimpong, Head of Public Affairs of SSNIT, said the Trust continued to educate employers and employees on the need to ensure that issues about social security of employees should not be toyed with.
He said social security was about the future of employees and urged the employers to take keen interest in the payment of the contributions together with the necessary data on each contributor to avoid being short-changed by some smart schedule officers.
Some of the Chief Executive Officers who made contributions urged the Trust to be forthcoming with its prosecutions to ensure compliance, a suggestion, the Director-General of SSNIT readily obliged.
Stunned by the revelations from the Trust regarding what some schedule officers of their companies might be using the contributions of their colleagues for, they pledged in separate interviews after the meeting to ensure that the data on the contributors were submitted alongside the money paid.