| Business
[ 2014-10-25 ]
Fortiz can answer questions over where millions of second tier pensions may be held A year ago there were serious allegations by many
financial analysts that funds used by Fortiz for
the purchase of Merchant Bank, now Universal
Merchant Bank were made available to them by the
Bank of Ghana via the Temporary Pension Fund
Account (TPFA) or the Tier 2 Pension funds, being
held at the Central Bank.
The allegations become serious in view of the fact
that one Mawuli Hedo, a director of Fortiz, was
also a director at First Banc, the Scheme
Administrators of the Temporary Pension Fund
Account. First Banc was appointed to be the
Administrators of the TPFA, with Bank of Ghana
serving as the Custodial Bank
In January 2010, the TPFA was set up to
provisionally administer the Tier 2 contributions,
pending the licensing of Trustees and the
registration of the Pension Schemes. Employers
from January 2010 remitted 5% (Tier 2
contributions) of their employees’ salaries to
the TPFA, adding that this continued for most
employers till October 2012. It still continues.
The licensing of Corporate Trustees, Fund Managers
and Pension Fund Custodians - purposely
established to fully administer the Tiers 2 and 3
schemes -- was only done by the National Pensions
Regulatory Authority on March 16, 2012.
The NPRA finally, after almost a 3-year wait
without much information to workers and service
providers, registered Pension Schemes at the end
of October 2012. Full implementation under the
reforms - Act 766 - thus started in November
2012.
Even though the National Pensions Regulatory
Authority indicated that it was going to invest
the Temporary Pension Fund Account, which was
being administered by First Banc, in Treasury
Bills pending the registration of Pension Schemes,
provisional statements released by NPRA in October
2012 indicated a return on investment of 2.75% per
annum. This was disappointing, given that the
average Treasury bill returns between January 2010
and October 2012 was around 15% per annum. Besides
the provisional statement issued back then covered
a period of 18 months instead of the 34 months
period (January 2010 to October 2012) over which
contributions had been made into the TPFA. This
raises fundamental questions as to what was done
with the proceeds from the TPFA administered by a
director of FORTIZ.
One of the serious implications of this situation
is that people who were 54 years and younger when
implementation started in January 2010 WILL NOT
get the full value of their lump-sum benefits,
upon retirement at 60. Thus, all Ghanaian workers
- both private sector or public sector workers -
who were 54 years old or younger as at January
2010 will not get their full lump-sum benefits
from Tier 2 Pension Schemes as NPRA is still
holding on to 58 months of workers contributions
and accrued benefits. There is no word from the
National Pensions Regulatory Authority as to when
these funds will be paid to the contributors or
even how it will be paid.
It is recommended that all activities of the TPFA
should be audited by an external auditor and
accrued contributions in the TPFA should be
transferred into the registered Tier 2 Pension
Schemes selected by the various employers.
The Bank of Ghana should submit a report on its
stewardship of the TPFA.
Source - Franklin Cudjoe
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