The National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA) now has received legal backing to prosecute employers who default in paying employees’ pension contributions to the appropriate trustees as demanded by the law.

The prosecutorial powers were given to the NPRA by the Attorney General’s Department.

According to the Chief Executive of the Authority, Hayford Atta-Krofi, the powers to prosecute defaulters will make his office operations easier and increase transparency.

He added that the Pension College will begin operations in the second quarter of this year.

Speaking at a media engagement in Accra on Tuesday, 30 March 2021, he said

“We have introduced a risk-based supervision system which is going to help regulate the industry and get real report from them in terms of the risks that are available in the industry.

“So we’ve put in this supervision system and also we want to roll out a pensions college which will help with the knowledge and understanding of the practitioners in the industry so that they will be able to understand what their roles and responsibilities are especially as trustees and how to look after the funds that they look after on behalf of the contributors.

“And then also we’ve been given the powers to also prosecute. There are a number of employers who default in paying contributions on behalf of their employees and when they retire, it becomes very difficult for them to retire on decent pension and we’ve been given that powers to be able to prosecute these defaulting employers.”