Management of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) on Tuesday called for the cooperation of management of establishments to address pertinent problems confronting contributors to make them feel comfortable to work.
Mr Kwasi Osei, Director General of SSNIT who made the call at a Chief Executives' forum at Tema complained that as much as staffs of SSNIT were determined to execute their mandate appropriately they were frustrated by undue delay in the submission of records by some establishments and clients to update their records.
The forum was to sensitize key stakeholders on measures instituted to improve the administration of Social Security Scheme (SSS) in the country and draw their attention to the challenges faced in their operation.
Under the measures, Mr Osei said distribution of monthly bills dubbed "Employer Member Account Reconciliation (EMAR)" has started to enable employers know the estimated indebtedness on monthly basis to settle them.
The bills, he said, were being distributed to establishments which owe more than GH¢100 as at September this year stressing that actively indebted establishments were being targeted.
Mr Osei said those nearing retiring age before they reached 54 years, data was prepared for accuracy to avoid delay in the payment of benefits before even an application was instituted.
For the programme outlined to be successful, Mr Osei appealed to managements of establishments to ensure their employees were registered with valid social security numbers, update employer/employee records, submission and payment of monthly report and contributions for update of records.
On the inability of some contributors to access the National Health Insurance Scheme, he explained that SSNIT did not have data on them for onward submission to the National Health Insurance Authority and urged the managements to address the issue.
To facilitate checking of documents from SSNIT, management said plans were underway for contributors to access them on the internet.
On the issue as to whether expatriates qualify for social security benefits, management said the law did not prevent anyone from contributing, however, they had to contribute for 20 years and attained 55 years and above before they qualified for benefits.
During open forum, the participants noted that despite the laudable programme instituted by the management, they delayed unduly in crediting accounts and submitting statements to their contributors and called for a review in their administration.
In Tema Municipality, bills have been distributed to 3,894 out of 6,962 establishments.