They are milking SSNIT dry?Billions of cedis down the drain

The Weekend Statesman says that at a time when two banks have been liquidated for lack of funds, the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT)is literally throwing billions of cedis into the gutter.

In a front-page screaming headline story, the paper says that documents available show that a triumvirate comprising Director-General Charles Asare, Board Member, Kwame Addo and business tycoon, Eddie Annan, are running SSNIT like their private enterprise and spending the public money "by heart".

According to the Weekend Statesman, there is evidence that Eddie Annan has been paid 500 million cedis for the computerisation of the Golden Beach Hotel at Elmina in the Central Region, and yet the work has not started.

The paper says that the high-rise office block still rising opposite "Cedi House" in Accra, which is being financed by SSNIT, was originally estimated at 47 billion cedis. Now the revised estimate is 102 billion cedis yet the project is only halfway through.

According to the paper, the contractors were brought down from the United Kingdom, courtesy of SSNIT Board Member, Kwame Addo. The Weekend Statesman says that Kwame Addo is reported to be the brain behind a two billion-cedi SSNIT loan to Bridal Trust, a joint venture of SNIT and other partners of which his is the chairman.