The Executive Secretary of Civil Servants Association, Mr. Smart Chigabatia, has described the $12,500 (90,000,000) salary of Mr Kwasi Osei, the Director General of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), as preposterous and called for a second look at the scheme.

His Deputy, Mr Ras Boateng also takes home $8,500 (64,000,000) a month.

Mr. Chigabatia, who was speaking to the 'Ghana Palaver' in an interview in his office said the argument by some SSNIT Board members that SSNIT workers need to be paid high enough to enable them equitably manage the fund is unfair, since Civil Servants are equally managing funds of the state and even though they are poorly paid, they are still managing state funds very well. He asked, "must the Civil Servant be poorly paid to mismanage?"

Mr Chigabatia blamed what is happening at SSNIT on workers poor representation on the SSNIT Board saying: "Even as it is workers whose contribution makes SSNIT what it is, their representation on the Board is very small, two from TUC, one from GNAT, one from Civil Servants Association, making it four as against about seven or more of others appointed by Government".

The Executive Secretary said, SSNIT is not paying itself from the National coffers, they are paying themselves from the contributions of workers, "so if they invest our contributions in factories and other business and make profit, it should also be used to cushion the worker whose money brought in the profit".

This, he said, is because SSNIT did not create the money on their own, and therefore, the Board and Management should be a bit circumspect the way they pay salaries to certain members of their staff.

Certainly, Mr Chigabatia said, the present Director-General and his deputy are receiving more than the President of Ghana, "one does not think that whoever is handling SSNIT is handling a more sensitive institution than the man handling the whole nation, SSNIT inclusive, yet the President's salary is not as high as the SSNIT Director-General".

At the last May Day celebration at Tema, some workers expressed concern at the salary levels at SSNIT and called for a review in view of the country's current economic difficulties.

As a Director General, Mr Kwesi Osei, a USA import by the Kufuor Administration, is paid a whopping $12,500 (?90,000,000) a month. That works out to $150,000 per year or ?1,080,000,000 or One Billion and Eighty Million Cedis per annum.

His Deputy, Mr Ras Boateng, also a USA import, is also paid $8,500 or ?64,000,000 per month. That works out to $102,000 or ?775,200,000 (Seven Hundred and Seventy-Five Million and Two Hundred Thousand Cedis) per annum.

Some workers have described them as real genius to be receiving that much and wondered if there was no one, so qualified in the country to assume that position.