SSNIT hotels sale: Selection of Rock City Hotel was fair and transparent – Elizabeth Ohene

Board Chair of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Elizabeth Ohene has expressed that the decision to select Rock City Hotel as the preferred strategic investor to acquire a 60% stake in four SSNIT-owned hotels was clean and transparent.

According to her, Rock City Hotel went through a thorough selection process before being granted approval by SSNIT to hold negotiations on the sale of four out of six hotels by the Minister of Agriculture, Bryan Acheampong.

The hotels involved are Labadi Beach Hotel, La Palm Royal Beach Resort, Elmina Beach Resort, Ridge Royal Hotel, Busua Beach Resort, and Trust Lodge Hotel.

In an opinion piece titled “Coming out of the Hotels” and authored by Elizabeth Ohene, the SSNIT board chair emphasized that she would take responsibility if any evidence of corruption regarding the deal is brought forward.

She mentioned that Rock City Hotel which belongs to Bryan Acheampong, went through a fair and transparent selection process adding that the Trust did not need the President’s authorization to engage strategic investors.

“I am able to say with the utmost certainty that the process that led to the selection of Rock City as the Preferred Bidder was clean, above board and met every rule and regulation and can withstand every scrutiny.

“Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa claims to have God and Ghana on the side of his campaign, and I would hope all of God’s Angels and Ghana’s investigative agencies, temporal and spiritual, would examine the process and tell the world if they find any irregularity or trace of corrupt practice. Indeed, if they should find any evidence of corruption, I will assume and accept responsibility and expect to be prosecuted,” Elizabeth Ohene wrote.

She continued, “Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa appears to know something I don’t. The Board of Trustees certainly did not go to get permission or even inform the President of the Republic or any Minister about the decision to seek a strategic investor to take a stake in the hotels.”

“The Board did not need such permission, was not obliged to inform the government and did not do so. I have seen no evidence in the records of past Boards going to the government or the President to get permission to make an investment decision.

“The Board did not involve the President, nor the Minister, nor the government in the process. The Act that governs SSNIT makes no such provision and I had thought it was in everyone’s interest that the pension fund is kept away from government interference,” the SSNIT board chair explained.

She also described the protest led by Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa against the transaction as a “long shot”.

“Obviously, a demonstration is more sexy when it ends at Jubilee House, but I assure the Honourable Member for North Tongu he was out by a long shot,” Elizabeth Ohene said.

The announcement of the sale prompted a petition from the Member of Parliament Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), requesting an investigation over the legitimacy of the sale, particularly to the Minister of State and Member of Parliament.

MA/NOQ

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