SSNIT to descend on defaulting employers

The Koforidua Area of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has vowed to clamp down on employers who refuse to register and pay the statutory monthly pension contributions for their employees as enshrined in the National Pension Act.

Mr Sylvester Anko-Bil, the Koforidua Area Manager of SSNIT, disclosed this to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview in Koforidua, on Thursday. He said it was against the law for employers to default in paying contributions of their employees and that offenders would be prosecuted at the law courts.

Mr Anko-Bil explained that under the Act, five-and-half per cent of an employee’s salary is deducted by the employer. He said the employer must then add 13 percent contribution making 18-and-half percent, and pay it in the name of the employee as their monthly social security contribution to SSNIT.

Mr Anko-Bil noted that some employers deduct the five-and-half per cent from their employees’ salaries but keep them without paying to SSNIT. “They make their employees believe that their social security contributions have duly been paid when in fact it has not been paid,” he said.

Mr Anko-Bil said currently his outfit had prepared lists of employers who had defaulted and that upon persistent warnings some of them had come to him to negotiate on how to pay. He said those who would continue to be adamant would have their names published in the dailies and would be processed for court.

Mr Anko-Bil said his office was aware that some employers were trying to outwit the Trust and cautioned them to redeem their obligations before they are exposed.

He cautioned employees against conniving with their employers with regards to contributions to the fund, adding that, “employees are the ones who lose when they side with their bosses who offer the over-the-counter payments as remuneration.” The New Act provides for Pension Reform in Ghana by the introduction of a contributory Three-Tier Pension Scheme.

The First Tier mandatory is to benefit the Basic National Social Security Scheme, the Second Tier mandatory is a fully funded and privately managed occupational pension scheme and the Third Tier is a fully funded voluntary Provident Fund and Personal Pension Scheme.

The Three-Tier contribution system replaces the SSNIT Pension Scheme and will bring about unification of all existing public schemes within a period of five years.