A Ho Magistrate’s court, presided over by His Lordship Augustine Akusa-am, has issued a bench warrant for seven companies for refusing to pay Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) contributions on behalf of their employees. The companies, located in the Ho Municipality, include the Cotopaxi Company Ltd, Seth Cudjoe Enterprise, Bokkson Company Ltd, Rhema Securities, Glory Oil, Secon Enterprise and Valley Palacio. They owe SSNIT millions of Ghana cedis. According to the prosecutor, Mr Paul Parker Atisogbui of the Ho SSNIT office, all efforts to get in touch with other four companies with their bench warrant had proved futile. Mr Atisogbui named the companies as Danorcent, owned by Mr Kwame Agbofa and based at Juapong, Adesden Service, owned by Mr Hayford Akortsu, Gladpana based at Peki, and Alpha Preparatory School in Ho, owned by Ms Enyonam Dey. Talking to the Daily Graphic, the Ho Branch Manager of SSNIT, Mr David Torkornoo, who said this was going to be done periodically, noted that there were a lot of companies that had refused to comply with the law, thus infringing on the fundamental rights of their employees. Mr Torkornoo said because the court could not handle all the defaulting cases at a go, this was the first in the series. He, therefore, cautioned all defaulting employers to contact SSNIT for negotiations if they could not pay their debts in full. The branch manager, who urged employers to desist from such negative practices, called all institutions to take the payment of their employees’ SSNIT contributions seriously.