Akuse (E/R), Sept. 21, GNA - The Deputy Head of Public Affairs of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Ms Eva Amegashie, has assured contributors that the Trust was sufficiently protected from governmental interference in its activities.

She gave the assurance in an answer to a question at a public seminar organized by SSNIT for employers in the Yilo Krobo, Manya Krobo and Asuogyaman districts at Akuse on Tuesday.

Ms Amegashie explained that the SSNIT Board was made up of representatives of the government, the Trade Union Congress, the Civil Servants Association and employers, which she said made it difficult for the government to manipulate.

She advised people, who give birth out of wedlock to add the names of those children to their beneficiary list to enable such children benefit from their Survivor's Lump Sum, should they die before their 60th birthday.

Ms Amegashie said SSNIT was putting in measures to help reduce the period for the processing of claims to ten working days. The Somanya Branch Manager of SSNIT, Mr Solomon Adusu, said companies in the area owe the Trust about 257.3 million cedis. According to him, the area had 2,425 SSNIT contributors, out of which 79 had no proper identification numbers, saying, most of the affected workers were former workers of the defunct Ghana Sugar Estate and Mpregillo Recci.

He expressed the hope that the affected contributors could be traced with their names and date of births when they find new jobs. The Koforidua Area Manager, Mrs Maame Ekua Amoah, said Ghanaians working abroad, whether legally or illegally, could contribute to the formal SSNIT fund, if one could prove that one pays tax on the salary. However, without the tax returns, the person could contribute to the non-formal SSNIT fund to enable the one benefit from a pension, when one is 60 years and return to the country.

She called on employers to pay their workers' SSNIT monthly contributions, even if they were employing them for a month.