The Forum for Public Sector Registered Pension Schemes has expressed disappointment with comments made by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Haruna Iddrisu regarding the implementation of the 2nd Tier Occupational Pension schemes.

The forum is composed of the Health Sector Occupational Pension Scheme, set up by several health workers’ unions and associations; the Ghana Education Service Occupational Pension Scheme, which is set up by five associations of teachers and educational workers; The Judicial Service Occupational Pension Scheme set up by Judicial Services Staff Association of Ghana (JUSAG), and the Hedge Master Trust Occupational Pension Scheme set up by Civil and Local Government Staff Association Ghana (CLOGSAG).

A statement from the Forum quoted Mr Haruna Iddrisu as saying “Government feels uneasy allowing for employees to manage their own pension funds because of the possible future risk. The government as an employer, sponsor and guarantor is not able to undertake that risk if the four schemes as registered by labour are allowed to be managed by them under their own pension fund.”

The Minister further remarked that, owing to the potential risk, government cannot dedicate the management of the pension fund solely to employees – a claim that the forum has described as erroneous, since the 2nd Tier pension funds would not be managed by the labour unions or employees.

According to the forum, the four pension schemes had been approved by the national pensions regulatory authority (NPRA) under the National Pensions Act 2008 (Act 776) and under this provision, pension funds were to be paid to the banks licensed by the NPRA.

Furthermore, the NPRA is to supervise the activities of trustees, fund managers and the NPRA-licensed banks, which are to treat the funds solely as pension funds and outside of their banking activities.

The forum believes that the Minister’s comments only make it apparent that government has been negotiating because there is the possibility that things would go wrong, in which case government would have to intervene, while on the contrary, government has been silent on similar schemes in other public sector institutions like VRA, GIMPA and others.

The Forum denied the Minister’s reported claims that the Forum did not respond to some invitations to the negotiation table.

The Forum is demanding the transfer of pension funds to the various schemes, a demand which it claims is not negotiable. “It is our right and we would fight for it with our maximum strength. Workers would not want to be impoverished in retirement”, a statement issued by the Forum said.