Gbc’s Pension Fund In Danger Of Virtual Collapse Due To The Actions Of Their Own Employer Sponsored Trustees Of The Fund

The Ghana Broadcasting Corporation is sitting on a time bomb and if something pragmatic is not done to save the situation staff pension fund will go down the drain. Why? The pension fund of staff of the corporation’s staff is going to vanish into thin air if care is not taken. The problem is not coming from the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA) or from any external source, but from the employer sponsored trustees of the corporation who have made transparency regarding the operations of the fund something impossible to attain.

It will not be out of place to plead with the President through the Minister of Information to come and save the lives of over one thousand seven hundred workers whose lives hang in the balance due to the greed and open disregard for laid down structures, procedures and the law of the country.

One would not be wrong to say that what is happening at GBC at the moment with the pension fund of the general body of staff, has national security implications, this is because there is general malaise within the work force and work morale is at its lowest ebb to say the least.

Why won’t it be so, when workers have from their meagre salaries, have made contributions towards a very meaning retirement, but are now in total confusion as to whether their money has been well invested to secure them a better future not to talk about the whereabouts of the said contributed funds.

The pension scheme is well regulated by the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA) and yet there is serious element of impunity and serious breach by the employer sponsored trustees at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation handling staff pension fund.

The problem as said earlier, hinges on the Provident Fund, which compulsorily every staff is supposed to contribute as a staff and that money must be handled by employer sponsored trustees who would then invest the money and the dividends yielding from such investments are then shared among the staff. This is where the confusion comes from. The actual crux of the matter!

For the past fourteen years, until recently, the staff of GBC do not know how their money deductible at source has been invested and what future is in store for them. All these unfortunate situation squarely lies at the doorsteps of the employer sponsored trustees and an independent trustee who together with the tacit support of the GBC union executives those handling the pension fund, are tight lipped and are refusing to say anything about the pension fund of GBC staff and what is really happenings with peoples money.

And mind you this is not the doings of any external force or the usual government manipulations, it is that simple; GBC staff made up of some employer sponsored trustees staff and an independent trustees handpicked in a manner one cannot understands at GBC and entrusted with the pension funds of staff of GBC are the ones causing the problem for the staff and their future investments. And if something is not done and done quickly it appears that the future of the staff of GBC is in danger, this is because their hard earned money is in the hands of their own colleagues who think that the general staff body must suffer for their selfish and greedy enjoyment!!!

There are clear cut rules on the operations of any pension fund as guidelines and rules have been created to run such schemes at all work places.

For example the NPRA gave a proper definition of the pension fund and it states that at section 2.1 of it guidelines that “Provident Fund” means a fully funded, defined contribution scheme in which funds are managed privately and benefits paid as lump sum to the employee or his dependents in case of death…’.

But it is strange to say that the staff of GBC are now at crossroads after contributing for over fourteen (14) years to the fund and are yet to know the way things went since they started contributing.

The truth about the existence of their funds is being muddled up in total confusion as some greedy few, styling themselves as employer sponsored trustees of the pension fund of GBC, and with a culture of open impunity, are toying with the lives of over one thousand seven hundred staff of GBC with the tacit support from the GBC Union as a body meant to protect staff interest and welfare.

Again the rules by GBC pension fund itself regarding investments of staff contributions states at : Subject B 3.1 above, the Trustees shall invest the contributions received from GBC in such investment portfolio/s as may be selected by the Trustees in line with the NPRA Guidelines.

Contrary to this laid down procedure something very bizarre is happening with GBC staff pension fund. For the past fourteen years or so the average GBC staff cannot talk about their funds let alone see and know how his or her money has been invested by the employer sponsored trustees of the fund. But the rules are clear on such matters especially the NPRA talks about it at: Section 6.1 of the NPRA rules that: ‘Within three (3) months after each financial period of a registered Scheme, each of the Scheme members is provided with a benefit statement setting out the member's position with respect to the Scheme as at the end of that period, whether or not the auditing of the financial statements of the Scheme for that period has been completed….’

The GBC rules itself on the pension fund also stipulates at: B1.3.3 that ‘The members and GBC shall be entitled at all reasonable times to view the books of the Registered Scheme and can, on payment of an amount determined by the Trustees, obtain copies of the Rules, and the latest financial statements and consolidated reports relating to the Registered Scheme’.

In the last fourteen years or so GBC, staff NEVER received such statements except for the first time ever i they received their statement in 2024.

Imagine that the rules says that each staff is supposed to part with as stipulated amount as stated at section B 5.1.1 of GBC pension fund rule that ‘Contributions of up to 16.5% of a Member’s Salary shall be treated as deductible income for the purposes of income tax for the Member and Ghana Broadcasting Corporation concerned to the extent of their respective contributions’. All these deductions for fourteen years they do not know what is happening with such contributions

It is quite regrettable to relate that the same employer sponsored trustees in 2016 ‘fooled’ the entire work force of GBC.How did they do it?

They said they want to change scheme managers and called on staff to come for half of their contributions without letting the staff know how much he or she contributed as at the time to the pension fund was functioning and how much each staff was having in his or her coffers or accounts.

And strangely enough due to ‘hardship’ most staff rushed in and took their money without knowing how much they really had as their pension fund. Can you imagine this? And yet majority went in for the rest of the money without knowing the exact amount left for them at the end of the day.

Such is the ugly situation of the staff of GBC whose duty involve exposing rot, corruption and greed in the Ghanaian society and yet they are now at the receiving end and they cannot voice it out for reasons best known to them, from their own investment managers, the so called employer sponsored trustees. It’s a shame!

After the forceful ‘death’ of the earlier contributions, with no one knowing how much he or she had withdrawn, that particular scheme came to an end without any meeting through AGM with staff and staff were forced to consume their pension funds without knowing how much they really had. And the shameless employer sponsored trustees are at it again.

Then in 2010 staff were urged to start new contributions and the employer sponsored trustees chose Metropolitan (mind you staff are often not involved even though it is their money and they hardly know who this investor is) as their investor(s).

As usual ‘hardship would not allow GBC staff to exercise patience for their money as the regulation itself allows for partial withdrawal of the pension. As at now some have done partial withdrawal and some have not.

The NPRA and GBC rules itself allows that: ‘Partial withdrawal of accrued benefits has been made possible with respect to National Pension Act section 110 (2), and it is that a Member who has not attain the retirement age may withdraw all or part of the Members accrued benefit from the Scheme:(a.)after 10 years from the date of first contribution;(b).a maximum of 20 percent of the accrued benefits after two (2) years of first contribution subject to appropriate tax as at the time of withdrawal.(c).a maximum of 50 per cent after five (5) years of first contribution subject to the appropriate tax etc.’.

As we write staff of GBC are eager to withdraw their money lodged with the pension fund and whether the pension fund manager or is Metropolitan or Petra everybody is really confused confused.

But sadly enough the usual tricks are being played on them by the employer sponsored trustees made up of Abraham Asekre, he is the secretary to the GBC union (an ordinary technician), Nicholas Osei Wusu, he is the GBC regional correspondent in the Ashanti Region, Abdul Razak Tahiru (Senior staff) deputy director in charge of Human Resource and his boss Korasare who is also the director of human resource at GBC.

These are the employer sponsored trustees plus an independent trustee(s) of GBC pension fund and since they took over there are serious problems and breaches associated with the performance of the pension fund scheme and seriously speaking lack of accountability is the bane of the GBC pension fund scheme.

For example the NPRA requires a statement of investment policy and states that at 4.1 ‘A statement of investment policy must be prepared and maintained in respect of the Provident Fund Scheme as Employer-Sponsored Scheme’

It further states that at.4.2 ‘The statement of investment policy must include sufficient information to enable Scheme members to ascertain in relation to each Constituent Fund of the Scheme….’

Ask me when the last time this was done? And the GBC rules itself supports that of the NPRA as mentioned earlier.

What is happening now at GBC is like asking for a manna to fall from heaven when one demands to know happenings with their provident fund. The employer sponsored trustees have refused to show the staff the true state of affairs of their money and every worker is now at his or her own wits end with the pension fund scheme since no one knows what is trending and what is going to happen next. The employer sponsored trustees as part of their amateurish tricks are calling on staff to withdraw their money so that they can get away with their shady deals. It’s a shame!

MOVEMENT FROM METROPOLITAN TO PETRA WITHOUT AN AGM

In the real scheme of things fund managers are required as a matter of right go through consultation and consensus building with the staff of the corporation and arrive at an Annual General Meeting with the same staff to change the investment company with which the fund money was lodged. The Annual General Meeting has been provided by the rules of the fund so that the staff through the union executives could arrange for such meetings for change of the company that will manage and invest the fund of GBC contributors especially so when they are not doing well.

But because the employer sponsored trustees have no respect for GBC staff and disregard them as people whose contributions they are managing are not worth their attention they the employer sponsored trustees have unilaterally changed the investor company from Metropolitan to Petra without an AGM and even refused to give out a simple circular to the general body of staff to know why they are or were moving away from metropolitan to Petra but are calling on staff to withdraw their money from where staff don’t even know.

Then like what happened in 2016 the employer sponsored trustees are throwing information around that staff should come for the withdrawal of their money so that they can cause confusion with people’s money and get away with it.

But there is a provision that talks about Transfer of benefits from one to other funds and at section B 2.5.1 of the rules and it states that ‘In collaboration with the Member and other funds, the Registered Scheme is empowered to receive transfers of benefits from any other registered pension, provident or retirement scheme, or to effect transfers of benefits to any other registered pension, provident or retirement scheme, on such conditions as the Trustees may lay down. Where transfers are received from other schemes, such transfers are subject to the provisions of these Rules.

And all of a sudden, there was a so called ‘movement’ from Metropolitan to Petra as a fund investor without the knowledge of staff whose money are been invested and secretly the secretary to the GBC union Abraham Osekre who represents the staff as one of the employer sponsored trustees is busy throwing information here and there without any authentication that people should come and withdraw their money.

GBC staff are now scared to the marrow and do not know the future direction of their pension fund scheme and the type of investments being carried out. The serious nature of the problem is the employer component of their pension scheme.GBC management gave out their part of the bargain. The money is in the region of 2.1 million Ghana cedis,

Strangely enough, no one can tell now whether the money (2, 1 million Ghana cedis) is lodged with Metropolitan or Petra as fund manager(s),

Purportedly, Petra has given withdrawal forms to staff who want to withdraw their money should do so, but when someone from GBC called Petra to find the truth or otherwise of the involvement of Petra with GBC pension fund the person at Petra could not establish the genuineness or otherwise of the forms being thrown about to GBC staff and could really say the forms are from their outfit.

Such is the scenario at GBC.Quite unfortunate. All the big journalists at the corporation are quiet and their sweats are being siphoned by semi-literates styling themselves as employer sponsored trustee.

I will be back with more feeler!!!
Samuel KyeI Bafffuor
Weija/Gbawe, Accra.