Pension issues must be handled by Labour Ministry, not Finance - CLOGSAG

The Civil and Local Government Staff Association, Ghana (CLOGSAG), says the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations is the legitimate body to handle pension issues and not the Ministry of Finance.

The Association said it had realised that the Finance Ministry was “illegitimately” handling pension-related issues instead of the Labour Ministry as stipulated in the National Pensions Act 2008, Act 766, and said the anomaly must be addressed.

Mr Isaac Bampoe Addo, Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, said this at the Association’s May Day celebration in Accra.

“Any supervisory role the Ministry of Finance is playing to SSNIT apart from determining allowances for Board Members and committee members is not supported by Act 766 and, therefore, anomalous or illegal,” he said.

Mr Addo said should the practice persist, the Association would be compelled to petition the Speaker of Parliament and also adopt other legitimate means to stop it.

Mr Addo said the Association would be introducing a technologically innovative system for revenue collection that would mitigate revenue leakages at the local government level.

“In pursuance of this, we have established CLOGSAG Revenue and intended to pilot it in three districts in the Central Region and eventually replicate it in all parts of the country,” he added.

The Association launched an online sales application and commissioned a CLOGSAG technology shop as part of the celebration.

Dr Evans Dzikum, President of CLOGSAG, said the technology shop was to help members purchase technological equipment at their convenience wherever they were in the country via online.

He said the service would offer alternative payments in high purchase for members and would save them time and stress from going to the open market.

“As part of COVID-19 restrictions, we decided to bring innovation to the welfare of members,” he added.