Falling trust in insurance trust

Not long ago, I received a call from a friend. To cut a long story short, he was in trouble. He was being pursued by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) for failing to pay the SSNIT contributions of some of his workers. But my friend is not the only person to have been pursued by SSNIT.

 I read one news article in which SSNIT was pursuing one popular creative personality – also for failing to pay the social security contribution of its workers.

Indeed, there are so many tales of how the SSNIT prosecution unit has aggressively prosecuted people for failing to pay the social security contribution of their workers.

So, the story of SSNIT is not all gloom. There are some phenomenal men and women there doing a great job. But sad to say, there are a lot of people there as well who have not only let the nation down but the millions of contributors to the pensions scheme.

A lot of people work hard. They don’t make much at the end of the month. Out of what they earn, social security is deducted.

The hope of the contributors is that it would build up into something more viable to cushion them when they retire.

They really work hard for it. They deny themselves of some of the pleasures of life in anticipation for a good life after retirement. Or at the very least, a decent life after retirement.

There are some who have developed sour relations with their employers over the question of SSNIT payments.

They have haunted and exchange words with their employers just so they can contribute towards their future.

Believe me when I say people go to extraordinary lengths to ensure that their SSNIT obligations are honoured. For some, it is their comfort against corruption.

They look back at their lives. And whenever they are tempted to “receive and put something aside for their future”, they remind themselves of the SSNIT contributions and other contributions that they have made. And they relax.

They become calm and opt for integrity because they know they would never go hungry when they retire.

Despite all these, I have heard enough to be despondent in terms of how SSNIT manages and invests the contributions of the Ghanaian. 

And the mismanagement that we see and hear of at SSNIT should concern us all. It is our sweat. It is our toil.

It is the accumulation of the total number of hours, translated into cash that is the basis for the investment. But clearly, the investments are not as prudent as one would desire.

Here is the thing about SSNIT: it does not struggle to get the monies that it has.

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It has the backing of the law. Come rain or shine, deductions from my salary and millions of others will be made month after month.

They don’t advertise aggressively as some private pension funds are compelled to do. Like I said earlier, they have the law doing the advertisement for them. We have therefore seen enough to break our hearts.

Public service is on its knees. And we need to salvage it as quickly as possible. There are obvious loopholes in our system and many are exploiting these loopholes to enrich themselves at the expense of others.

Permit me to digress a little bit. What is the essence of education if we cannot tie the loose ends of the fabric of our society and make the best out of it?

What is the value of education if the day light robbery that we see all around us are from educated, sometimes suit wearing individuals who have at some point had the benefit of enjoying some subsidized education in one way or the other?

We have heard of the supposed investment made by the trust to secure some software that clearly was not thought through properly. We have heard of imprudent investment practices. We have heard and seen how the human resources at SSNIT continue to let their contributors down.

We have seen how incompetent and clearly persons who are not qualified being placed in high positions. We have heard of how SSNIT goes splashing money around in all kinds of investments which are not the interest of the citizenry.

We have not seen the last of these. There would be more in the coming days.

We must acknowledge. We cannot go on for long this way. We must not treat this as business as usual. It has a bearing on the quality of life for many.

We must not let this simply lie.

If there is a lesson to be learnt from the SSNIT issues, it is that we must pay active and keen interest in whatever happens at that institution. We’ve been fooled for far too long.

(politics_today@yahoo.com)