Sunyani (BA), July 9, GNA - The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) would in August this year introduce a new programme aimed at checking the rising employer indebtedness to the Trust.

Mr Samuel Nkansah, Sunyani Branch Manager of the Trust, explained at a seminar on Wednesday that the objective for the introduction of the Employer Member Account Reconciliation (EMAR) programme "is to enable the Trust to determine promptly and inform employers regularly about their companies' financial status". He said this computerized operational activity would promote excellent relations between SSNIT and employers through regular interaction.

The seminar was organized by the Trust to update representatives about the new system and to address related matters. Speaking on the topic, "Overview of the SSNIT Employer Member Account Reconciliation System", Mr Nkansah dismissed the notion that SSNIT is a tax collecting agency.

"SSNIT is rather an investment entity, established by PNDC Law 247 to discharge a legal mandate of collecting contributions of various establishments and a constitutional requirement for institutions to render their contributions to the Trust", he said. He explained that the new programme was being introduced for the fact that in the past, until an inspector visited an establishment to conduct inspection, directors of institutions failed to pay employees' contributions regularly and this led such companies and the Trust into huge debts.

Mr Nkansah further explained that under the EMAR, SSNIT would submit monthly bills for each employer and reconcile employer's account with SSNIT based on previous payment records. "Under the programme, contribution reports would be submitted by employers and data captured and processed in order to declare employer's credit balance. Indebtedness of establishment with outstanding contribution reports would be estimated based on their last submitted reports", he stated. The Branch Manager advised employers to co-operate with the Trust by regularly and promptly paying contributions on or before the 14th of the ensuing month to avoid the imposition of penalties and other inconveniences.

Mr Kofi Agyare, acting Area Manager, said the total employer indebtedness to SSNIT as at December 2006 nationwide stood at GH Cedis 43,031,628 (430 billion old cedis) for a total of 8,023 institutions. The indebtedness rose to GH Cedis 54,442,670.00 (544.4 billion old) last year cedis for a total of 8,345 companies, he said. Speaking on "Employer Indebtedness and Its Effect on the SSNIT Pension Scheme", the Area Manager stated that mounting arrears in Sunyani Municipality as at June 2007 stood at GH Cedis 326,962 for 313 establishments.

Mr Agyare noted that the indebtedness was due to the employers' failure to attach importance to the payment of social security contributions whilst some of them gave priority to other financial commitments either than the payment of the contributions to the Trust. Other factors, he said were irregular payments, under payments and under declaring of labour force.

The acting Area Manager stressed that the situation negatively affected administrative expenses, system and procedures, payment of benefits, payment of minimum pension, indexation and the sustainability of the scheme.

On the role of employers under the new system, Mr Eugene Boakye, Public Relations Officer, urged employers to update and notify SSNIT on employees' records, change of employers or corporate name, change of address of institution, telephone numbers, location, status of the company, contact person (s), names of contact person(s), names of directors, updating employees' records, salary books and payment vouchers. He appealed to employers to regularly prepare and submit contributions' report containing all the needed information to the SSNIT.

Mr Samuel Ahenkorah, who presided, noted that the introduction of the EMAR programme could not come at a more opportune time since this was the time the Trust was facing the problem of high contribution risk and the payment of retirement benefits and issues. He asked personnel to keep proper records of employers so that officers who would take over from them would not suffer when they need important data. 9 July 08