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Pension Implementation Committee on
course
GNA - Mr Daniel Aidoo Mensah, a Project Consultant with the
Pension Reform Implementation Committee, on Tuesday said no
new Public Servant would be allowed to join the CAP 30, when
the new pension system comes into force.
He said those already under the CAP 30 Pension Scheme would
be given the option to make a choice whether or not to join
the new three tier scheme being proposed under the new
pension reform.
“This option would, however, be phased out within five years
from the enactment of the law that would bring the new
pension scheme into force. The law is expected to be passed
before the end of the year,” Mr Mensah said.
Mr Mensah, who was speaking at a day’s media orientation on
the National Pension Reform in Accra, said the CAP 30 Scheme
was not sustainable since there was no department that was
directly in charge and everything had to be computed by the
Controller and Accountant-General’s Department.
“To halt the multiple problems associated with the CAP 30,
the system was to be decentralized with the establishment of
a Pension Fund and a Department of Pension for CAP 30. This
Department would ensure that each public servant received
his or her entitlement within the regions in which they
worked.”
In July 2004, President John Agyekum Kufuor constituted a
Presidential Commission on Pension charged with the
responsibility to examine existing pension arrangements and
to make appropriate recommendations for a sustainable
pension scheme(s) that would ensure retirement income
security for Ghanaian workers, with special reference to the
Public Sector.
The nine-member Commission submitted its final report in
March 2006.
The main recommendation was the creation of a new
contributory three-tier pension scheme for Ghana to replace
existing parallel pension scheme. It comprise of two
mandatory schemes and a voluntary scheme that would help to
ensure an enjoyable pensions for Ghanaians.
The Government accepted almost all the recommendations of
the Commission and issued a White Paper on it in July 2006.
It also appointed a Committee called the Pension Reform
Implementation Committee to implement the recommendations in
the White Paper.
The Accountant-General’s Department would undertake a
headcount of both active and retired employees of CAP 30 to
ensure that an active and reliable data was available.
Mr Mensah said the Department would, however, continue to
pay gratuities and lump-sums to whatever is left of the
pensionable officers in the Public Sector, who were employed
before January 1, 1972 and Public Servants, who joined the
CAP 30 Scheme, thereafter, until the new reform law becomes
operational.
Touching on the Social Security and National Insurance Trust
(SSNIT), Mr Mensah said by the old scheme, SSNIT had had no
element of solidarity towards its pensioners “and this is
one of the issues that the new pension reform scheme sought
to address”.
He said: “We are working at bridging gaps between the
Executive Manager on Pension and the Labourer to ensure that
they both enjoyed a good pension where the Executive would
have some deductions that would be added to the Labourer’s
to bring about social equity and ensure that both enjoyed
retirement”, he said.
Mr Mensah said under the new proposal, workers aged 55 years
and above would be exempted from the new scheme” but the
Implementation Committee will further review and make
appropriate recommendations on their benefits.
“SSNIT itself is expected to undergo a restructuring that
would involve an overhaul of its staff, governance,
management and administrative structures and it would no
longer be controlled by Board of Directors but by a Board of
Trustees.
Mr T.A. Bediako, Chairman of the Implementation Committee,
said it would ensure continued participation of other major
stakeholders.
He said five advisory subcommittees made up of the Legal
System; SSINT Restructuring; CAP30; Informal Sector and
Administrative and Public Relations would serve as a
taskforce for carrying out specific assignments given by the
Main Committee.
Mr Bediako said the Pension Reform Committee had a
comprehensive plan for sensitization and orientation for all
stakeholders and the general public on the new three-tier
pension structure.
GNA
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