The review, which is expected to be completed in eight weeks, will also assess the internal control and financial management systems to identify any weaknesses and make recommendations for best practice.

The review will also cover an audit of the trust’s Information Technology (IT) systems in use to identify and document gaps in the system, in view of the large expenditure on a new operating system.

At a press conference in Accra on Tuesday, the Board Chairman of SSNIT, Dr Kwame Addo-Kufuor, said the review had become necessary because there were challenges, including financial irregularities, improper management practices, high management cost and imprudent investments which drained the resources of the trust.

The independent review would be anchored on four main areas—financial management, risk management, information technology management and human resource management.

 OBS system

According to the trust’s figures, $66 million was spent on its Operational Business Suite (OBS) system to manage the core operational activities, including the registration of a member, payment of contribution, compliance enforcement, benefits administration and relationship channel management.

The project has come under criticism for what the trust’s critics say was a dysfunctional system.

Transactions

Dr Addo-Kufuor said the review would ascertain whether transactions conducted conformed with established procedures and accepted standards, and also ascertain the true financial position of the trust as of March 31, 2017.

“SSNIT has failed to live up to expectation because of these negative factors. But through the efforts of the new board and the management over the last few months, it is beginning to show signs of modest recovery,” he said.

He said the findings and recommendations of the consultant would establish the “ground truth” and status of the trust, offer guidance in the formulation of strategies and plans to meet the objectives of pension reforms.

According to the SSNIT Board Chairman, as the sole tier one pension administrator and largest non-bank financial institution, the trust had an obligation towards the welfare of Ghanaian workers, pensioners, victims of occupational incapacity and their dependents in times of their financial need.

According to the 2015 Annual Report of the trust, approximately GH¢1.24 billion was paid as social security benefits. Out of that amount, GH¢1.16 billion was paid as pensions with GH¢118.98 million paid as lump sums.

According to the same report, at the end of 2015, there were 156,262 pensioners on the SSNIT Pension payroll, with 188,183 new workers registered onto the scheme.

Improve income security 

With those figures probably in mind, Dr Addo-Kufuor said the objective of the review would ultimately help improve the security of income of workers, expand coverage of the trust to the informal sector, especially to include cocoa farmers, reduce administrative cost and ensure good returns on investment, as well as the effective and efficient management of SSNIT with a high level of integrity.

He said it would also deal with any issues of  reckless wrongdoing that might be unearthed, adding that persons found to have engaged in misdeeds would be handed over to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) and then handed over to the Attorney-General or the Special Prosecutor, if that office was ready, for prosecution.

Meanwhile, Dr Addo-Kufuor said, five staff members of the trust were currently being investigated by SSNIT but declined to give more details.

However, snippets of information the Daily Graphic picked indicated that the investigation was connected to the OBS project.

Responding to questions on the changes introduced by the management to bring efficiency into its operations, the Director-General of SSNIT, Dr John Ofori-Tenkorang, said the trust had tightened its budget with a focus on cost control.

“We need to get our cost down as one of the ways of making this scheme sustainable. The other side is that we need to get our revenues in but we need to cut down cost and stop the haemorrhaging.

“Each time we have to pay pensions, we have to disinvest our near cash instruments to top because there were debts that were not being collected, as well as payments that were not current.

“We have engaged with the people who owe us and I can say that right now, we are not disinvesting when we need to pay pension,” he said.

Changes

He said apart from that, the trust was also enforcing strict adherence to identification tags to distinguish its staff from contractors and contributors who entered its offices, as well as punctuality checks.

The Deputy Director-General in charge of Finance, Administration and Management Information Systems, Mr Michael Addo, declined to go into whether the review would result in job losses.

 He also declined to comment on whether the OBS system was working, since there was an audit of the project.

Mr Michael Adu-Antwi, a PWC partner in charge of Assurance, for his part, said the review was not for witch-hunting purposes and that it was meant to correct the anomalies.