General News of Saturday, 4 May 2002

Source:  

SSNIT Boss' Salary: 90 Million Cedis/Month

A cross section of workers have questioned the rationale behind the outrageous salaries paid to top management staff of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), including the current Director General. Workers who celebrated May Day at Tema blamed the Trades Union Congress Boss, Kwesi Adu Amankwah, who is a member of the SSNIT Board for not questioning the basis of the $12,500 (90 million cedis) paid to the Director General of SSNIT, when workers who contribute to the Trust can hardly make ends meet.

The Ghana Palaver newspaper quotes a pensioner, Jacob Okine, who has served Ghana for 40 years as describing the SSNIT Boss' salary as absurd. “They take the lion’s share and give us (pensioners) peanuts,” he said and wondered why the President should appoint someone who takes 90 million cedis a month. Investigations conducted by the ‘Palaver indicate that the President takes ?2,290,217 as salary a month, the Chief Justice ?1,740,588 while a Supreme Court judge takes ?1,720,719 as compared to the SSNIT Boss’ salary.