The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), has been directed by the Acting Auditor-General (AG), Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, to recompute and recover some Ghs 9.2 million in penalty charges from nine agent banks for failing to transfer the daily SSNIT contribution collections to the Trust.
In a report on the public accounts of Ghana for the year ended 31 December 2019, by the Office of the Auditor-General, the AG notes that failure of the agent banks to transfer the daily SSNIT contributions to the Trust contravenes paragraph 4 of the SSNIT Pension Contribution Collection Services Agreement.
“Contrary to Paragraph 4.0 of the SSNIT Pension Contribution Collection Services Agreement, Management did not impose on the 9 Agent Banks total penalty charges of GH¢9,252,840.97 for failing to transfer the daily SSNIT contribution collections per the agreement.”
“We recommended to Management to re-compute the penalty and recover same from the Agent Banks and inform our office for verification failing which the authorising and approving officers of these contracts shall be held liable,” read the report.
In addition to the penalty charges, the AG further instructed SSNIT to as a matter of urgency, ensure that the same nine banks transfer some unpaid balance of a total of Ghs 26.3 million to a designated account at Bank of Ghana (BoG).
The payment of the Ghs 26.3 million by the 9 agent banks is due to the failure of the banks to remit the said amount at the end of the 2017 and 2018 financial years.
“In contravention of Paragraph 3.1.2 of SSNIT Pension Contribution Collection Services Agreement with 21 Agent Banks, 9 of the Agent Banks did not remit a total of GH¢26,331,114.79 to the designated account at Bank of Ghana (BoG) as at the end of the 2017 and 2018 financial years respectively. We recommended to Management to ensure that the banks transfer the unpaid balances to SSNIT Account at BoG without further delay,” stated the AG in its report.
