SSNIT to be audited to establish true state of affairs

An extensive audit is to be carried out at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to determine the current state of the public pension scheme.

The audit, to be performed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, is expected to give an understanding of what new measures ought to be implemented to make the pension Trust a competitive one within the sub-region and beyond.

This was revealed during a contract signing ceremony between SSNIT and Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

Areas to be audited include financial management, risk management information, technical management and human resource management.

Challenges

SSNIT in recent times has been criticized for being inefficient, especially around the implementation of the tier two scheme.

Reports from the National Pensions Regulatory Authority revealed some 40,856 workers could not receive their contributions due to challenges with the scheme in 2016.

Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia prior to the 2016 general elections asserted that SSNIT is facing huge financial constraints over mismanagement of the entity’s resources.

Citing a World Bank report, he further warned that the actuarial valuation shows that the fund will become a cash flow negative in 2019 and all assets will be used up by 2031.

But chairman of the SSNIT board of trustees, Dr. Kwame Addo Kufuor believes the audit would help identify the loopholes in the system.

“The board took the decision to arrange for an extensive audit in order to understand the current state of the Trust.

“We also did it because we realized the trust which had the role of ensuring the provision of income security for workers in Ghana was not taking its responsibility seriously,” he said.

SSNIT to attract FDI

Though the Trust has the primary role of ensuring pensions security, it is expected of it to woo investors to add up to the foreign direct investment that the country gets.

Dr Addo Kufuor said in the coming days, the trust will partner with the private sector all geared towards attracting foreign direct investments.

Auditing won’t witch-hunt

An assurance partner at Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Michael Aseidu Antwi, assured the audit would be carried out by his firm dispassionately, and that findings would not be used to witch-hunt anyone.

“We will put out what needs to be out. We don’t want people to think that the finding will be to witch-hunt anyone”.