SSNIT, THE HFC DEAL    

The seeming monopoly of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) over funds and ability to take certain crucial decisions with the long hands of politicians directing should attract the scrutiny of Ghanaians. After all, the trust derives its strength from the contributions of Ghanaian workers who are mostly in the dark about how such fortune-moulding decisions are reached.

SSNIT made uncharitable headlines in the heat of the Merchant Bank brouhaha as a result of its encounters with various civil society entities on the then proposal. In the end the trust suffered a major bruise for the manner in which it conducted itself and succumbed to the dictates of politicians.

It is worrying that the impression of government arm-twisting pops up with the mention of the trust, the effect of the Merchant Bank issue.

Even before the trust works hard to redeem its sunken image, it has embarked upon another financial project which has already exposed its underbelly to another bout of public opprobrium.

Maybe it does not really care about what its numerous publics think about its performance, image quality and the ease with which politicians manipulate it to their selfish ends, the negative of these anomalous situations notwithstanding.

The trust has been dragged into a fresh transactional row – the subject of boardroom gossip in financial institutions – which have of course followed the developments in the HFC debacle.

We would have rather, as are other Ghanaians with a stake in the fortunes of the trust, it does not dabble in a fresh row as represented by the HFC and the Trinidadians vis a vis the decisions taken against some board members of the bank.

Other financial projects, which are hated by those who have the guts to stand in their way, are being given the kind of treatment dictators love to use in their fiefdoms against dissent.

With the politicians lurking in the dark, we should not be surprised.

That is the reason why conscientious board members who see in the transaction anomalies for which they put up appropriate resistance have been showed the exit.

Better to leave with their heads up than be part of a rip-off of the state and attract the condemnation of posterity tomorrow.

The rate at which the core values of the institution are being pushed to the backburners is cause for concern by all who cherish a strong trust with the interest of the Ghanaian worker as a cornerstone.

If such projects which as pointed out, would only go to serve the interest of a few politicians at the helm, we must be light years away from achieving the objectives for which the trust was set up. How sad!

Have Ghanaians been sufficiently educated about what the HFC and the Trinidadian deal entails?

Politicians must consider the nation's interest as paramount in such matters by ensuring that the decisions of the trust are devoid of their long hands as these have the tendency to taint quality performance and blemish-free decisions.