Gov’t begins payment of tier 2 pension contributions

Government has commenced the payment of the tier two pension contributions of public sector workers into their registered schemes.

Twelve labour consisting of the Ghana Medical Association, the Ghana National Association of Teachers, the Civil and Local Government Staff Association among others, laid down their tools, fighting the erstwhile Mahama-government to pay up, after several years of negotiations.

But speaking to Citi News, the Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, Dr. Isaac Bampoe-Addo, said after pleas to the Akufo-Addo government, payment has commenced to their custodian banks as expected.

“Currently, all our monthly contributions are being paid to our custodian banks which is a good sign and we are very grateful for that. What is left to be handled is the outstanding arrears which is about 18-months that has not being paid; but currently all contributions since December to January has been paid to our custodian banks,” he said.

“We are happy with what is happening now and we think if it goes on, the arrears will be cleared. It is fair that once we have arrears of 18 months, ours is paid first before others are paid,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Deputy General secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr. Justice Yankson, whoconfirmed the payment to their members, said the former government had also commenced paying of their arrears but some amounts are still outstanding.

“The monies that had been deducted from January 2010 to August 2016 is still outstanding. As we speak, those funds are yet to be transferred to the various schemes. We are looking at something within GH¢3.5 billion to 4 billion. We need to audit those funds carefully to ensure that every worker is assigned his or her contribution and the interest.”

The Minister for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffuor-Awuah, during his vetting before Parliament's Appointments Committee said he will collaborate with relevant agencies including the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), to investigate the cause of the delay in the payment of the tier two pension allowances, and ensure the contributions are paid to avert labour union strikes over the matter.

Although the previous National Democratic Congress (NDC) government said it had begun working to pay all arrears to the labour unions, it could not satisfy the demands of the labour unions before leaving office earlier this year.

Labour unions strike
Public sector workers in the past embarked on strike over the non-payment of the tier two pension contributions to their respective fund managers.

After the last protest, the Chairman of the Forum of Public Sector Labour Unions and Executive Secretary of CLOGSAG, Dr. Isaac Bampoe, told Citi News, that workers want their second tier pension contributions to be transferred to their custodian banks.

According to him, there was the need for accurate data on all public sector workers to get government to pay back all monies owed the workers.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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