Director General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has revealed that the company has recovered from its poor performance in 2016 after recording a jump in the fund value for 2017.
Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang observed that SSNIT's underperformance in 2016 was characterised by a loss in the fund's value to the tune of GHC18 million.
This downward slope, he said, was halted after he assumed management of the Trust, noting that he together with the Board headed by former Defense Minister, Addo Kufuor worked hard to change the fortunes of the institution.
The efforts by the new management, Dr Ofori-Tenkorang disclosed has led to the fund gaining a value of GHC978 in 2017, a feat he stressed is attributable to the standards and controls implemented so far.
"Our management account last year 2017 compared to 2016 showed that in 2016 the fund lost value to the tune of about 18-20m Ghana Cedis. In 2017, our management account showed that we added about GHC978 million to the fund, so whereas 2016 was a loss, in 2017 we added about GHC978 million to it," he said.
Citing some of the measures that had been put in place since taking over the helm of affairs at SSNIT, the Director General emphasised the cutting down of budget and expenditure on items not directly related to SSNIT or that will not inure to the benefit of the outfit.
He also highlighted changes made to the procurement procedure and standards in the organisation to ensure that best practices are observed.
"When we came the amount budgeted for travelling and accommodation, was GHC7.34 million we went through the year and we only spent GHC1.9 million. Basically, I came and we cut a lot of travel. We said that any travel had to be motivated, you had to state how it is going to benefit the Trust and we put limits on sponsorships, the kind of things we spend money on to sponsor. If it is not core to the business of SSNIT, the contributor or the pensioner, we will not do it," he stated.
Dr Ofori-Tenkorang continued "I as DG has put my eye on procurement where I have made changes in the procurement department, I think people in this Trust will tell you that so far DG tries to vert almost everything. In 2016, we found out that Christmas hampers cost us close to GHC1 million, 2017 the Board and management decided no hampers so we didn't procure any hampers"
The SSNIT Deirector General made these known at a press briefing to hand over the report on the investigations and audit of SSNIT by PriceWaterhouse copers into its operations and transactions over the past few years.
After the presentation of the over 400-paged report, SSNIT also disclosed updates to the investigations by EOCO on the procurement of an OBS system by the previous administration of the institution.
The report as read by the Company Secretary of SSNIT, Gifty Annan indicted 5 former highly placed staff out of which four have been cautioned by EOCO and due for prosecution on charge of wilfully causing financial loss to the State.
They include former SSNIT Director General, Ernest Thompson, Juliet Hasana Krama, CEO of Perfect Business System; John Hagan Mensah, former OBS Project Manager at SSNIT and Caleb Afaglo, ex-General Manager of Management Information Systems at SSNIT.
EOCO commenced probing SSNIT in August 2017 after it emerged that the Trust had injected $72 million on the procurement and installation of a software and other hardware systems known as the Operational Business Suite (OBS) to digitise SSNIT’s operations.
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