The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) will not go outside the law in paying past credits to workers, the Director General of the trust, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, has said.
According to him, the demand from the Forum for Public Sector Registered Pension Schemes was not in the National Pensions Act, 2008, Act 766, with amendment (Act 883).
Section 94 (1) (d) of the act, titled: “Transitional Provisions”, states that "accrued or past service or past credits earned by every contributor to whom the new scheme applies in respect of the 25 per cent lump sum benefit shall have the lump sum determined by a formula agreed between the Pension Reform Implementation Committee and the trust, based on actuarial assessment".
The past credit is the contribution of workers to SSNIT before the coming into force of Act 766, which brought about the three-tier pension scheme.
In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra on Wednesday to react to the concerns raised by the forum at a press conference in Accra recently, Dr Ofori-Tenkorang assured workers that "SSNIT will continue to pay their legitimate benefits promptly and accurately, based on the law".
Communique
He reminded the Chairman of the forum, Mr Isaac Bampoe Addo, that he (Addo) was a signatory to a November 24, 2017 communique among the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the forum.
The communique bordered on the final formula for the payment of past credits.
The communique, which was also signed by the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta; the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, and Dr Justice Yankson, also of the forum, recommended that “the computation captured in the findings under Past Credit was agreed between the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and SSNIT and should be accepted by all parties”.
It indicated that the parties agreed that “the provisionally established amount of GH¢3.02 billion as what constituted the Temporary Pensions Funds Account as of November 30, 2017 should be the basis for the transfer of funds to the Registered Public Sector Occupational Pension Scheme”.
The SSNIT Director-General accused Mr Addo of acting in bad faith, on the grounds that he had ample time to study the communique before appending his signature.
He said 13 issues were raised in the agreement, discussions were held and recommendations made on past credits.
Dr Ofori-Tenkorang said the White Paper on the issue of past credit came out with a formula to be accepted by all parties in accordance with the agreement reached in the communique.
He, accordingly, dismissed the accusation that SSNIT was dragging its feet over the implementation of modalities for the past credit.
That allegation, he said, was not true.
The forum
The forum, at a press conference on September 12, 2019, accused SSNIT of foot-dragging with the implementation of the modalities for the past credit, adding that the trust was reluctant to "come out with modalities for the calculation on past credit earned as of December 2009, based on a 100 per cent treasury bill rate, compounded quarterly and the issuance of statements to each contributor”.
Mr Addo, who is also the Hedge Master of the Trust Occupational Pension Scheme, said: "The forum sees the stance of SSNIT as a tactical move to sabotage the smooth implementation of the three-tier pension scheme, which is scheduled to be fully operational with effect from January 1, 2020."
Meeting
The board and the management of SSNIT met on Wednesday, but it was not clear what the agenda of the meeting was.
The Daily Graphic, however, gathered that Mr Addo met the management of SSNIT the same day for some negotiations but the parties could not agree on any common ground.
Following the snag, SSNIT is expected to hold a press conference today to throw more light on its position on the past credit.
Statement on past credit
An earlier statement issued by SSNIT maintained that, “The computation of past credits is based on the agreed formula and such past credits will be paid to members who retire from January 1, 2020. Contrary to the assertion by the forum, SSNIT is not using contributors’ money to ‘obstruct’ the implementation of Tier Two.
“Currently, the Tier Two scheme is being implemented and SSNIT is not against the implementation of the three-tier pension scheme,” the statement added.
It said the management of the trust remained focused on ensuring that it fulfilled fully its obligations under the National Pensions Act, 2008, Act 766.
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