Nine out of 21 agent banks of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) failed to remit a total of about GH¢26.3 million cedis of pension contribution collections to the designated account at the Bank of Ghana as of the end of the 2017 and 2018 financial years respectively.

According to the 2019 Auditor General Report on Public Boards, Corporations and other Statutory Institutions covering the period 2019, this was in contravention of the SSNIT Pension Contribution Collection Services Agreement with the 21 agent banks.

Some of the banks have since been merged after their licenses were revoked by the Bank of Ghana.  Interestingly, management of SSNIT did not impose sanctions on the nine agent banks a total penalty charges of a little above GH¢9.2 million for failing to transfer the daily SSNIT contribution collections per the agreement.

The Auditor General Report recommended to management of SSNIT to ensure that the banks transfer the unpaid balances to the SSNIT account at the Bank of Ghana without further delay.

It again recommended to the SSNIT management to re-compute the penalty and recover same from the agent banks and inform its office for verification, failure which the authorizing and approving officers of these contracts shall be held liable.

Meanwhile, the Trust incurred an extra cost amounting to about GH¢875,522 on the purchase of a little over 22.86 million shares for failing to participate in a right offer of an issue within the offer period.

The Auditor General therefore charged SSNIT management and Board to be proactive in its decision-making processes by taking into consideration deadlines to prevent the Trust from loss of funds.

SSNIT fails to recover GH¢2.3m loans

Also, the Trust has failed to collect a loan of GH¢2.37 million loans given to eight related companies in contravention of Section 91(1) of Act 921.

This was due to ineffective due diligence on the investment.

It therefore recommended to management to improve on the Trust’s loan granting processes and also ensure that the loans are fully recovered.