The Pension Reform Implementation Committee has recommended that the Social Security and National Insurance Trust prune its senior staff members to reduce the administrative cost of the Trust. The Daily Graphic reports the Committee of saying the present senior staff strength was eating deep into the finances of the trust and called for action to cut it down. The Chairman of the Committee, Thomas A. Bediako made the call at a media orientation on the National Pension Reform Programme in Accra yesterday. Mr Bediako said the ratio between the senior and junior staff of the trust was one is to one, a situation he described as unacceptable explaining that the normal ratio was one senior staff to five junior staff members. The Chairman said the Committee had started its work in earnest and gave the assurance that it would ensure the continued participation of other major stake holders. He noted that the Committee was also making moves to speed up the decentralization of the CAP 30 (a pension ordinance which was used to regulate pension administration in the past) to the district level. Mr Bediako said a special group had been set up to attract the informal sector to contribute to the pension scheme. He explained that Ghana Armed Forces was left out of the CAP 30 because the nature and structure of their service conditions were different from those of other security services. He said for instance, that the GAF had a short term compulsory retirement policy while some of the men could retire after 10 years of service and added that the GAF had something similar to the Cap 30 which the other security services did not have. A member of the committee, Chief Musah Adam said SNNIT would peg the minimum contribution to the minimum wage to enable contributors to benefit substantially when they went on retirement. A project consultant of the National Pension Scheme, Daniel Aidoo Mensah said the main recommendation of the committee was the creation of a new contributory three-tier pension system for the country to replace existing parallel pension schemes. He said the committee conceded that the peculiarities of environmental demand made it necessary for the income replacement ratio to remain at a level which enabled the retiree to meet his or her additional social responsibilities. He said any pension scheme for the country which ignored that social factor would fall short of pensioners’ expectations. Source: Daily Graphic