Revelations from the 2020 Auditor-General Report indicate the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) lost an amount of Gh₵70,814,300.00m which is equivalent to $11.79m from the liquidation of three of its investments with a cash outlay of $14.768m.
The report recommended and urged Management of the Trust to commission an investigation to unearth the reasons for the non-performance of the investments to ensure value for money and also ensure that such losses are not recorded in the future.
“We urged Management to investigate the nonperformance of the investments for all to ensure value for money and ensure that officers whose action led to the loss are appropriately sanctioned for the loss. We further urged Management to ensure that effective feasibility studies are carried out before investing,” the report stressed.
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is a statutory public Trust charged under the National Pensions Act, 2008 Act 766 with the administration of Ghana’s Basic National Social Security Scheme. Its mandate is to cater for the First Tier of the Three-Tier Pension Scheme. The Trust is currently the largest non-bank financial institution in Ghana.
Though Section 90 of the Public Financial Management Act 2016, Act 921, require the governing body of a public corporation or state-owned enterprise to establish and maintain; policies, procedures, risk management and internal control systems, and governance and management practices, to ensure that that public corporation or state-owned enterprise manages its resources prudently and operates efficiently in accordance with the objectives for which the public corporation or state-owned enterprise was established, the report said SSNIT has not received any returns in the form of value appreciation or dividend in its investments in nine listed and six unlisted companies.
The Report also revealed that management could not collect from the Finance Ministry the divestiture proceeds of $626,522.47 from the Divestiture Implementation Committee since 2012.On that score, the Report “urged Management to step up efforts to recover the amount [$626,522.47] from the Ministry of Finance and DIC.”
