Botched SSNIT hotels deal: People are running down state institutions so they can sell them to themselves - Sophia Akuffo

A former Chief Justice of Ghana, Sophia Akuffo, has commented on the botched deal to sell 60% shares of four hotels of the state-owned Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to Rock City Hotel Limited, which is owned by the Minister for Food and Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong.

According to her, the attempt to sell the four hotels is an example of the new norm of people in authority running down state institutions just so they can sell them to themselves under the guise of making these institutions efficient.

The former Chief Justice could not comprehend why SSNIT would make investments that do not yield good returns because it does not happen in any part of the world, 3news.com reports.

“I don’t think anyone running an investment fund in the world would be sitting and earning substandard returns… we have to address the issue.

“Of course, SSNIT will justify it because they have run down the hotels and just like in the public sector a lot of public properties have been run down just so that the value will be run down and always at the end of some cycle or the other, they do sweetheart deals and do this distribution among themselves. SSNIT can say I have defamed them but I don’t care,” she is quoted to have said.

Sophia Akuffo commended the labour unions for forcing SSNIT to cancel the deal to sell the hotels, saying “God bless the labour unions.”

She also refuted the assertion of Bryan Acheampong that there was no issue of conflict of interest in the deal to sell the shares of the SSNIT hotels to his hotel.

“Yes of course (there was conflict of interest). You can’t be the judge and the jury, you can’t be the lawyer and the judge, you can’t be the litigant and after you have given your evidence and everything, your lawyer has done his submission and it is time to determine the outcome and now you are going to sit among the jury and you want to be part of that.

“Conflict of interest is not defined by the individual. Sometimes a conflict of interest, when you are managing standards, it is part of the performance standards. When you are managing ethical standards, sometimes it is simply perception. Will a reasonable man in the street, if you were to tell them of this, what will they say about it? If here, you can surmise that they will say it smells, then it smells. When you are a public person just because there is no law that says you cannot do it does not mean you should do it. Even in the Bible, it says I can do all things but not all things are good,” she explained.

The entire country almost came to a standstill when Organised Labour declared a nationwide strike after the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, stated that the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) had approved the sale of the shares of the four hotels, including the Labadi Beach Hotel, La Palm Royal Beach Resort, Elmina Beach Resort, and Ridge Royal Hotel, to the dismay of the labour unions who had stated the deal was not in the interest of workers.

Almost all labour unions in the country, including doctors, teachers, nurses, and civil servants, adhered to the order to not attend work from Monday, July 15, 2024, until the government announced the termination of the deal.

Bryan Acheampong’s Rock City withdrew its bid to buy the hotels, and SSNIT subsequently announced the termination of the deal to sell the shares of the hotels.

BAI/

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