TIER TWO PENSION BROUHAHA MUST BENEFIT THE PENSIONERS!

SONETCO Institute wishes to remind all parties involved in this ongoing tier two pension brouhaha to make the PENSIONERS the focal point of the banter underway involving workers unions, pension fund managers and government.

We want to remind President Mahama, a proponent of socialism, together with his team to factor the principles of socialism in this resolution of the current situation so that the ordinary Ghanaian pensioner does not suffer any untoward predicament as they go to the table to jaw jaw for an amicable solution. There are instances the world over where management of the pension fund has been run into bankruptcy and we must learn our lessons from such; the Chilean experience is still fresh in mind. Therefore the interest of the citizenry is paramount to any other individual's or group's "parochial" interest.

We commend unionized labour (workers' unions) for exercising their constitutional right of peaceful industrial strike rather than picking of arms to express their views over the current debacle of management of their pension funds. This goes a long way to deepen the nurturing of our democratic dispensation. However we must also accept the economic ramifications of strike actions which impede accelerated growth and development of our nation. As we speak the "nation is at a standstill"; operations of hospitals grounding to a halt at a time cholera and Ebola are hovering above our heads, teachers are not teaching at a time we complain about enormous challenges facing our educational sector etc.

Workers' Unions must not use the current protracted disagreement to hold the nation to ransom because the human resource is an integral part of the government machinery.

We plead that the same energy they are exercising to battle for what is due them is exercised in the discharge of their duties as public and civil servants. Because the economic loss suffered due to the strike will take a lot of hard work to recover even as our nation begins to see some light again after the suffrage of economic turbulence.

Entrenched positions will only retard our growth, so individuals and groups happily "fanning" this brouhaha must desist from it because this is a delicate situation that must not be tinted with partisan parochial interests.

We must ask the question, "who should be held responsible if the fund management run bankrupt?". Because at that point, the pensioner is neither a government employee nor a member of any workers union.

Investments on behalf of pensioners must be devoid of potential scandal because we have examples of the Obotan project that SSNIT, EIC and DATA BANK embarked upon that did not yield the desired results.

Though we haven't had many systems run to perfection, we pray the pension fund managers will live above reproach in discharge of their mandate so others will learn from us as a nation.

We wish to reemphasize the point that, the pensioners' interest must remain supreme during all negotiations.

Long Live Sonetco Institute!
Long Live Our Homeland Ghana!
Adiepena Daniel – 0244447810
Spokesperson; SONETCO Institute.
Issued in Accra, Friday 31st October , 2014
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