Govt. sets up 8-member committee on pensions

Accra, Nov. 6, GNA - The government has set up an eight-member committee under the chairmanship of Mr. Thomas Ango Bediako, an education and labour consultant, to implement the recommendations of the Presidential Commission on Pensions.

A statement signed in Accra on Monday by Mr L.B. Tusoe, Chief Director, Office of the President, said the secretariat of the committee would be located at the Office of the Head of Civil Service Annex.

Other members the committee are Chief Musa Badimugru Adam, a management consultant and former Managing Director of the Electricity Company of Ghana, Mr Andy Kwabena Asamoah, a UN Consultant and former Representative to the UN Joint Pension Fund and Business Executive and Mrs Irene Wontumi, management and career counselling consultant. The rest are a representative each from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Ministry of Justice and Attorney-General and Ministry of Public Sector Reform. The statement said Mr Daniel Aidoo Mensah, Managing Consultant and Chief Executive Officer of Tri-Star Consulting Actuaries and Former Chief Executive Officer of Metropolitan Insurance Company, had been appointed as a consultant to the committee.

President John Agyekum Kufuor in response to concerns of workers' organizations as also in recognition and concern for the appalling state of pensions in Ghana established a Presidential Commission on Pensions in July 2004 chaired by Mr Bediako.

It was charged with the responsibility to examine existing pension arrangements and to make appropriate recommendations for a sustainable pension scheme(s) that would ensure retirement income security for Ghanaian workers, with special reference to the public sector.

Government, in a White paper accepted the recommendations of the Commission that, a new Three=96Tier Pension System be introduced comprising two mandatory schemes and a voluntary scheme.

The Government said it shared the view of the Commission that to ensure retirement income security for all Ghanaian workers, the ultimate goal was the creation of a unified pension structure.

Government also said the view that to avoid the inherent inequities in the existing public sector pension schemes, there is the need for the creation of a unified structure for the public sector.

Government said CAP 30, under which lump sum is paid to workers, was not sustainable and should be phased out and that the SNNIT Scheme had the inherent capacity to remain viable and sustainable provided the challenges facing it are confronted and resolved.