Presidential Commission on Pensions invites inputs from all stakeholders

Accra, Aug. 30, GNA- The Presidential Commission on Pensions said on Monday that the quest to find a lasting solution to demands for improved pensions did not rest solely with the it but with all stakeholders.

"Our collective input in this process would bring appropriate solutions which would ensure a better retirement scheme for pensioners and those yet to retire," Mr Thomas Ango Bediako, Chairman of the Commission, told a press conference in Accra.

He said the Commission intended to make the exercise participatory. In addition to reviewing existing literature on pensions schemes, it would also receive memoranda and conduct public hearing in Accra and the regional capitals tentatively from September 15.

Members of the public are to submit their memoranda latest by September 15, he said.

Mr Bediako noted that workers in both the public and private sectors had been agitating for improved pension schemes for some time. Civil Servants, teachers and nurses have been demanding the restoration of the Cap 30 (Pension Ordinance of 1946, Chapter 30 of Ordinance 42 and Teachers' Pension Ordinance, 1955) while workers in the public sector have complained about the paucity of the SSNIT payments. Mr Bediako said this attracted the attention of the government to establish the Commission to, among other things, ensure a better retirement income security for workers.

He said the Commission, inaugurated on August 4, was not only to examine the existing pension schemes but also advise on the type or types of pension schemes that could be operated in the country, having regard to the sustainability and assurance of a good retirement income. Mr Bediako said it was the hope of the Commission to meet the deadline of submitting an interim report by the end November and appealed to the media to give the Commission the maximum publicity in view of the importance of its work.