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The Coalition on the Right to Information (RTI), Ghana, has expressed doubts about the feasibility of the new pension scheme to serve the mutual interest of workers due to inadequate information and challenges bedeviling it.
“Numerous criticisms on the way the Pensions’ fund of the second tier has been invested over the last year tend to bring some uncertainty about the viability of the new Scheme”, the Coalition on RTI said in a statement signed by Ms Esther Ahulu, RTI Project Officer on Wednesday to wish workers and organised labour a happy workers day.
The Coalition noted that this year’s theme for the celebration, “Pensions: It is your Right and Responsibility” was appropriate and timely considering the challenges faced by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
It added that SSNIT every year complained about lack of compliance by employers in the payment of employees’ contributions, but pension entitlement is the right of every qualified employee and the responsibility of every employer.
The Coalition, however, said the issue had to do with whether both employees and employers had adequate information about this right and responsibility. They stated that “As a result of inadequate information on pensions most workers do not know about their entitlements and claims”.
The Coalition quoted Mr Sam Pee Yalley, Executive Secretary of the National Pensions Regulatory Authority as saying “…low scheme registration rate, lack of proper data on the scheme, unwanted and ill-informed criticisms” were some of the challenges facing the new scheme introduced to enhance pensions.
The statement noted it was on the bases of such issues that the Coalition had for the past ten years been fighting for the passage of an effective RTI law to provide maximum disclosure of information to citizens.
The Coalition said RTI was the touchstone for all other fundamental human rights and therefore, there was the need for workers to be well informed on their pensions’ rights and responsibilities in order to hold their employers, including Government accountable.
“The need for citizens to know will not only enlighten them but will also promote democracy and development”, the Coalition said.
The Coalition, therefore, reiterated its call on government to facilitate the passage of the RTI law, which it believes would positively affect all aspects of peoples’ life.
Ghana’s RTI Bill was first drafted in 2002 and laid before Parliament in 2010 but has since not been passed into Law.
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