SSNIT: Rip-Off Most Foul

Ghanaian workers have never been so ripped off. Through a white collar thievery, their monies kept in trust by this important social security institution, have been the subject of a sophisticated and smelly swindle by persons deriving their impunity from the corridors of political power.

Were all workers appreciative of the level of thievery perpetuated by those at the helm of the Social Security and National Insurance Scheme (SSNIT) under the aegis of the previous administration and the implications thereof, they would have hit the streets to demand their pound of flesh. They would have simultaneously expressed profound gratitude to the President for appointing Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor as Chairman of the social security institution.

Unfortunately, the level of rot which afflicted the institution was for a long time shrouded in the ungodly propaganda of the NDC administration and therefore before the ken of most Ghanaians for a long time. Now that the pieces are being put together and the issues becoming more prominent, courtesy the SSNIT Board Chairman, the man whose records as Defence and Interior are unsurpassed – Ghanaian workers would identify one of the major causes of their deprivation when they are done with public service and gone home on retirement.

For academics with a passion for graft and its negative impact on the fortune of a country's kitty, the SSNIT story offers an apt case study. What about this suggestion 'Impropriety, Impunity In Managing A Social Security Institution: The Case Of SSNIT.'

The deed has been done already and the funds of workers of several years standing misappropriated through multifaceted conduits. All we can ask of the relevant agencies in charge of dealing with graft and improprieties regarding public funds is that they must not rest on their oars until sufficient recoveries are made and the culprits dealt with according to law.

We do not intend to jump the gun. Suffice it to point out, however, that due process would precede whatever sanctions that follow. Our consternation as other Ghanaians should be understandable.

We are tempted to return to a question we posed sometime ago in an editorial: 'had political change not come courtesy Ghanaians and the improprieties in state institutions such as SSNIT continued what would have happened in the next four years? Could the country have survived the widespread financial hemorrhage?'

A free SHS, One district one dam and other flagship projects could not have been possible under the above mentioned graft situations. That is why the NDC discounted the possibility of undertaking such projects given the injury they had inflicted on the nation's kitty. They did not consider the fact that in a President Akufo-Addo is an unusual determination to make a difference by uprooting graft and its associated appendages.

When you meet a retired public officer who exhibited symptoms of a pauper, remember the inflated cost of headphones and phony software as captured in the items bought by SSNIT under the previous administration.

Where are the union leaders? When are they reacting to the SSNIT story? They should educate their members about what happened and the repercussions of the absurd developments but for the change that visited Ghana.