'Gov’t must take its hands off workers' pension fund'

The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo has once again slammed government over the management of the pension fund agitation by public workers.

Public sector workers across the country embarked on a strike action last month in protest against government’s decision to manage their second tier pension funds, saying it is in contravention of the Pensions Act.

The workers disagree that government should be the one to select a manager for the funds. They insist that it is their right to manage the second tier pension fund or be allowed to appoint their own trustees.

Speaking at the second Aliu Mahama Memorial Lecture in Accra, Tuesday, Nana Addo said government must take its hands off the pension fund and allow the workers have a decisive say in who manages their pension funds.

“Securing the future is about ensuring our workers a decent pension after retirement. It has been a sad spectacle watching the recent struggle over the Tier Two Pension between Government and the Unions.

“The National Pensions Act 2008 (Act 766) was introduced by the NPP because we saw the need to secure a better future for pensioners and get a critical mass of capital into the money market for long-term investment. It was enacted to complement the work of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust,” Nana Addo said.

He added that “the way forward in the current impasse is self-evident: let Government take its hands off the pension till and allow the scheme to work as it was intended to do. Let the workers have the decisive say on how their privately managed funds are run.

“If it means amending the law for greater clarity, let us do so. Let us thus demonstrate our confidence in the private sector and this is bound to send out positive signals to the money markets around the world that Ghana is indeed open for business”.

The lecture is held annually in honour of the late vice president who served under the tenure of former President John Agyekum Kufuor.