[ 2014-10-31 ]

NPRA: ¢1.64bn In Pension Fund
Funds under the controversial Tier Two pension
scheme have grossed ¢1.64 billion, Chief
Executive of the National Pensions Regulatory
Commission has revealed.

Laud Senanu said the figure represents
contributions from the public, private sector
workers as well as the investment component.

Public sector workers are up in arms against
government, over the Tier Two pension scheme and
are demanding full disclosure and a complete
control over the management of funds accrued to
the scheme.

In the past few weeks, public sector workers have
been demanding to know where their funds have been
lodged, how much has been accrued and who are
behind the Pensions Alliance Trust, the company
government appointed to manage the tier two
pension fund on behalf of the workers.

In their anger, 12 public sector workers unions,
declared an indefinite strike, bringing the
country's education and health sectors on their
knees.

Employment Minister Haruna Iddrisu in an attempt
to assure the workers that their monies are safe,
said a total of 440 million cedis had accrued to
the fund.

But the workers were not convinced. They did not
understand how a fund they began contributing to
since 2010 had grossed only 440 million cedis.

Per the Pensions Act, five per cent of the
workers' salary has to be deducted into a tier two
pension scheme whilst the employer contributes 13
percent to SSNIT.

The new law was passed in 2008; with the year of
implementation being 2010.

The first batch of contributors under the tier two
pension scheme are supposed to retire in 2015 and
the workers want to be assured that their
contributions are safe and sound before they go on
retirement.

Addressing a press conference in Accra, Thursday,
the chairman of the National Pensions Regulatory
Commission, Laud Senanu, said the workers'
contributions are lodged safely into the Temporary
Pension Fund Account (TPFA) at the Bank of Ghana.

Joy Business' Emmanuel Adjei who was at the press
conference reported Mr Senanu as saying that the
1.64 billion cedis is in three components.

The first is the private sector workers'
contributions which were paid to SSNIT and later
transferred into the TPFA. That amount has grossed
a total of 521,885,987.36 cedis.

The second is the public sector workers'
contributions paid to the Controller and
Accountant General's Department and later
transferred to TPFA. That has also grossed
488,768,270.73 cedis and the third is the
investment component which has grossed over 600
million cedis- all amounting to 1,641,11,027.70
cedis.

Laud Senanu said there is an overlapping
membership of schemes with some public sector
workers belonging to different scheme managers.

The NPRA has had to freeze all schemes until the
misunderstanding between the workers and
government is resolved, he stated.

Source - Joy News

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