According to the unions, their contributions have been held at the Bank of Ghana since 2010, a situation they describe as unlawful.

[contextly_sidebar id=”OErnM0l1f5mQf89CHKWkPEEDXZKEEH1W”]The unions include the Ghana Medical Association, the Civil and Local Government Staff Association, CLOGSAG and the Ghana National Association of Teachers, GNAT.

Speaking to Citi News, the Public Relations Officer of CLOGSAG, Edmund Acquaye, said the union will take a critical action against government if their monies are not paid.

“We have given government the 31st of July to pay the monies that have been accrued by the Bank of Ghana that is in the temporary pensions account. What we are saying is that, since 2010 to 2016, contributors’ money have been kept at the Bank of Ghana which is yielding no interest.”

“What we are told is that, interest is on the treasurer bill rate and we think it is in bad faith. We think what is being done by government will not make our people well off . It is members going on pensions, it will be worse off because the idea behind the introduction of the three tier pension is that contributors should have enough money to be able to survive.”

Three years ago, eight labour unions laid down their tools to make similar demands.

They challenged the Finance Ministry’s decision to use Pension Alliance Trust as a sole trustee of the second tier pension scheme for all employees on government payroll.

–

By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post 12 Labour Unions threaten strike over tier two pension appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Finance Minister Seth Tekper confirmed this in an interview on the Citi Breakfast show on Friday [November 25].

Some labour unions in the country including the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and Ghana Medical Association (GMA) earlier this month threatened to embark on a strike if government did not immediately transfer their pension contributions to their private fund managers.

The Chairman of the Forum of Public Sector Labour Unions and Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, Dr Isaac Bampoe told Citi News, “our demand was that the second tier should be transferred to our custodian banks but as we speak now, nothing has been done”

But according to the Finance Minister, the government is actively working to address their concerns.

Seth Tekper told host Bernard Avle that the demands of the labour unions could not be exactly satisfied because their demands called for the elimination of the validation process is against public financial management practice.

“What the labour unions are saying is that the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) is a regulatory  institution and is not an implementing agency and therefore, when the money is received by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department it must be paid to their banks directly.”

“We are saying, when you do that, you are removing a very important element of public financial management which is validation. The Controller is not equipped to do the validation, so can we bring in SSNIT for example, that is equipped to do the  validation before the payment.”

“Yes we are owing, there is a schedule for payment, and we are on it,” the minister said.

According to Seth Tekper, the value of the monies will not be lost while a lasting solution is being sought.

“We are taking steps. We are not keeping it [monies]. The Auditor General does the validation; we have brought them on board because they do all forms of audit which often delays because of the various validations they do; they are helping us with payroll and others. We are straining the internal audit agency to some of these things.

“We are saying that given that, it is a regular flow that comes in all the time, what you need is an institution that can do the validation with that expertise,” he said.

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

The post Auditor General validating pension for unions – Seth Tekper appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.