The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has assured pension contributors that their investments with it are safe, secure and healthy.

It has also indicated that in the last four years, management has been working assiduously to ensure that all the legacy issues, most of which bordered on investments in commercial and residential properties that affected the future of the scheme, are addressed.

The Director-General of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, gave the assurance in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra yesterday in response to some concerns raised in the Auditor-General's report for 2019.

New Pension Act

For instance, with regard to the query about some pensioners aged between 72 and 75 under PNDC Law 247 and Act 766, the new Pensions Act, who were still receiving their pensions, Dr Tenkorang noted that it was not accurate.

“Rather, since the last four years, we have been able to work to delete ghost names from our payroll, which resulted in the trust saving more than GH¢144 million as of the end of 2020,” he said.

He said measures, including biometric verification of pensioners, had helped in that process and gave an assurance that, more work was being done to ensure that the payroll was completely devoid of ghost names in order to fully protect the contributions of workers on the scheme.

With regard to bonds the trust purchased from Kings University, he said the GH¢7.65 million had been fully settled as of February 17, 2021, and “therefore, there is no issue there at all to be of worry to the contributing public”.

Reports indicated that the trust engaged the university and settled on the negotiated figure which was settled through a land/debt swap arrangement.