Security services to be part of new national pension scheme - Bediako

Accra, May 22, GNA - Personnel of the security services, apart from the Armed Forces, will be members of the new National Pension Scheme under the new pension law. Addressing over 300 police officers at the national headquarters of the Ghana Police Service in Accra, Mr Thomas A. Bediako, chairman of the Pension Reform Implementation Committee (PRIC), said the main objective of the new Pension Scheme was to ensure retirement income security for the Ghanaian worker.

He said the scheme was to provide adequate pension benefits as and when due, to establish rules, regulation and standard for administration as well as payment of pension benefits. Mr Bediako repeated that the new pension scheme was a three-tier Pension Scheme consisting of first and second-tier mandatory Schemes and a voluntary third-tier Scheme.

The first tier will be the Basic National Social Security Scheme, the second tier, an occupational based (work place based) scheme and the third tier a voluntary provident fund and personal pension scheme designed for the informal sector but provide opportunity for the contributors of first and second tiers to make additional voluntary contribution to enhance their retirement benefits. Under the New Pension Scheme the Security Services will be required by the National Pension Act (Act 766) to make a monthly contribution of 5.5 per cent whilst the employer pays the remaining 13 per cent making a total contribution of 18.5 per cent.

Mr Bediako explained that 13.5 per cent would be remitted to the first tier mandatory scheme to be managed by SSNIT and the five per cent into the second tier which will be an occupational scheme. He said that CAP 30 was to be phased out because it was not sustainable. The scheme is not funded and does not follow normal actuarial principles. Mr Bediako said this was confirmed by cost pressures on the consolidated fund. He, however, pointed out that the Controller and Accountant-General would continue to pay monthly pension gratuities and lump sums for pensionable officers in the public sector who were employed before 1972 and public servants who joined under CAP 30 scheme thereafter.

Public sector pensioners would also continue to receive their benefits under the new scheme. He said to reduce the difficulties of CAP 30 beneficiaries, public sector pension management and administration would be decentralized by ensuring that the appropriate professional management capacity was built in the regional and district capitals and within Ministries, Department and Agencies. On the management of the new scheme, Mr. Bediako said that Pensions Regulatory Authority would be established under the new pension law to oversee the administration of the Schemes. "The Authority will regulate and monitor the activities of the trustees, pension fund managers, and pension fund custodians to ensure maximum returns on the pension fund in their trust." He added that to ensure that members' interest were adequately protected, the New Pension Act had provisions for in-built safeguards and provided adequate participation in the management of the various schemes.

Mr Bediako said special challenges identified in the process of the security personnel joining the new scheme would be dealt with by appropriate authorities. He therefore called on the police service personnel to embrace the new scheme since in the long run it would benefit them more than the current CAP 30 SSNIT scheme. The committee, he said, had intensified its education on the new scheme to ensure that both formal and informal sector personnel, including security services, were better informed. TMA/REA 22 May 09