The Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) says the increase in service charge for insurance companies is in their best interest.
Life insurance companies are unhappy that the Controller has increased the 1percent charge for deducting premiums on their behalf to 3 percent; they argue that the new charge will have an impact on their projected premium targets.
Effective January 15 this year, the Controller and Accountant General’s Department increased its charges for the various deductions it makes from the salaries of government workers on behalf of all third party institutions such as financial institutions, insurance companies, and hire purchase companies among others
Head of Third Party at the Controller and Accountant Generals Department, Mark Opoku Amponsah has told Citi Business News, the increment was necessitated by the need to absorb operational expenses incurred in migrating premium deductions onto an electronic platform
“We have changed from manual processing of third party transactions to an electronic platform which is a Public Private Partnership and there is cost associated with that so the percentage increase is just to take care of that gap to enable us process claims electronically,’’ Mark Opoku Amponsah said.
Citi Business News has learnt there has already been meetings between Controller and the Life Insurance Companies of which they were told of the impending increment but were not aware it will be 3percent
“At Controller we are just trying to help third party Institutions to be able to process transactions without much errors; it’s in their best interest that we are doing that and its expensive to maintain the platform,’’ he added.
By: By Lorrencia Nkrumah/citifmonline.com/Ghana