Minority accuses govt of engaging in secret deal with SSNIT

The Minority in Parliament is accusing government of not disclosing to the House, its failure to pay workers’ contributions amounting to 914 million cedis in December 2014.

According to the NPP MPs, government should have informed Parliament about the matter, but it did not. The Minority said they only got to know about it through the IMF criteria performance on Ghana’s extended credit agreement.

The Minority insisted at a press conference in Accra Wednesday that the decision by government to securitize it arrears to SSNIT should have been brought to Parliament for it to be discussed.

Government at the end of 2014 was supposed to pay 914 million cedis to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust as workers contribution. Government however asked SSNIT to pay the 914 million cedis on its behalf to be repaid later.

Joy News Elton John Brobbey who covered the press conference said the MPs accused government of holding back the money it ought to have paid SSNIT only to sell it out as bonds.

“As a result of the behind the curtain securitization of the arrears, the fiscal deficit of 2014 has been revised upward from 9.4 to 10.3 percent of GFDP,” Deputy ranking member on the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Dr Mark Assibey Yeboah told the media.

He explained, “This then means there have been double digit fiscal deficit for three back to back years, which has never before been seen in this country.”

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