Teachers' Outcry Has No Basis - Professor

Prof. Stephen Adei, Rector and Director General of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), has said the outcry of Ghanaian teachers has no basis since the seventeen and half percent of their contribution towards the Social Security and National Insurance Trust pension scheme is enough to sustain them after retirement.

This, he said, will enable teachers to live a normal and average life after their tireless service to the nation and mankind.

He was speaking at a colloquium on critical development issues organized by GIMPA to educate stakeholders on the Cap 30 and the SSNIT pension scheme, which has assumed the centre of controversy in recent times, and prompted the attention of His Excellency, President John Agyekum Kufuor, to set up a nine-member committee to subject both schemes to a careful scrutiny and give its recommendations.

Prof.Adei also wondered why SSNIT, which under normal circumstance should be self-regulatory, is being subjected to governmental control, which, he said, could impede the effective performance of its constitutional duties.

In his address, Dr.A.N. Atakora, a resource person at GIMPA, highlighted the objectives of organizing the colloquium as: to focus on political economy in an election year, to assess the performance of public policy, reflect on issues of management and make policies that solve the problem of the Ghanaian optimally.

He said issues of public policy raises questions of monitoring and evaluation with the intention of getting a feedback of policy impact based on perspectives and also, even when a policy is implemented, doubt may remain as to whether the problem is identified or not.

Dr. Atakora recapped how SSNIT was introduced in 1972 to replace the Cap 30, which is a non-contributory scheme and also a drain on the Ghanaian economy.

Mr Osei Bimpong, the Public Relations Officer of SSNIT, who was a participant at the colloquium, made a comparison between the pension schemes of the United States and that of Ghana, saying, "SSNIT pays 50% of replacement ratio as compared to that of the United States which less than 50%."

He also urged all Ghanaians, regardless of one's salary and nature of work, to contribute to the scheme, which is the bedrock of all retirees.