Accra, Nov. 22, GNA - The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) will aggressively pursue and prosecute defaulting employers to retrieve over 430 billion cedis contribution arrears, Mr John Saka Addo, Chairman of Board of Directors of the Trust, said in Accra on Thursday.

"While we have enjoyed the co-operation of our member employers in terms of compliance, there is still a sizeable number who have not regularly met their statutory obligations," he said.

According to Dr Addo, the top 100 delinquent enterprises accounted for over 247 billion cedis representing 57.55 per cent of the total indebtedness.

Mr Addo, who was speaking at the Third Stakeholders' Forum of the Trust, said they were engaged in discussion with the Accountant-General in respect of the arrears owed by state-owned institutions. He said since the Trust resolved to prosecute defaulters, an amount of 61.31 billion cedis had been recovered.

Mr Addo, however, said last year witnessed a phenomenal growth in contributions with the Trust collecting an amount of 2,868 billion cedis, up by 50.47 per cent on the 1,906 billion cedis collected in 2005.

He attributed that to the receipt of outstanding contributions for previous years due from some key holders.

The Chairman said the Trust also recorded a positive real return of 4.3 per cent in 2006, showing a recovery from the -8.4 per cent real return made in 2005.

"This improved performance was due partly to gains from the revaluation of some major equity investments such as Ecobank Transitional Incorporated and partly to improved dividend and interest income."

He announced that the Government White Paper and the new pension reforms had come out and the Trust was co-operating with a Pension Reform Implementation Committee in its work to craft the necessary legislation to give legal backing to the recommended reforms. Mr Kwasi Osei, Director-General of the Trust, said contributing membership grew from 1,144,493 to 1,211,620 and the year also recorded 90,906 new members and 23,779 withdrawals. On pensions, he said the Trust processed 18,510 applications in 2006 for various benefits showing 10.18 per cent increase over the 2005 figure of 16,800.

"The total value of benefits processed was 798.71 billion cedis as compared to 630.24 billion cedis in 2005, showing an increase of 26.73 per cent," he said.

He said out of the total benefit paid in 2006, old age/invalidity pension and survivors' benefits accounted for 621.91 billion cedis and 140.99 billion cedis respectively. They also paid 35.81 billion cedis for old age lump sum/refund.

Mr Osei said Student Loan recoveries had continued to improve over the last three years and they had recovered 236.6 billion cedis, representing 15.84 per cent of the amount due, through outright payments, social security contributions and deductions from the guarantors' benefits.

"We are recovering at the rate of five billion cedis monthly." Most stakeholders, especially the pensioners, were worried about the delay in processing their pension documents and receipt of their entitlements. They urged the Trust to put in more "realistic mechanisms" to correct the existing procedures, which they said, were very cumbersome. 22 Nov. 07