Audio: SSNIT Boss Protests UTAG’s Calls For His Head.

The Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Mr. Kofi Bosompem Osafo-Maafo has replied to the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) on the call for a complete overhaul of the SSNIT board and the immediate resignation of its top management team.

Kofi Osafo-Maafo described these calls as “unfair” and defended the decision to sell, citing the necessity of improving performance.

He said the current board and management have put in a set of investment policies and guidelines that have put the trust in the “best” position that “we’ve seen since inception because now we are guided by this policy and guideline to ensure that we invest in a particular way.”

He said, “if you look at the operations of SSNIT and all other issues, significant changes have taken place” and at the end, “our attempts to improve the portfolio and because of that the university teachers think, that is the wrong procedure, I think that is not fair enough.”

To Mr. Bosompem Osafo-Maafo, UTAG should recognise that there was a problem with underperforming assets at SSNIT, which the board and management are trying to solve.

He said UTAG should also note that the board and management of SSNIT “cannot manage a portfolio without doing anything when something has to be done,” to improve the performance of under-performing assets.

“We [stakeholders including organised labour” just have differences in opinion and how we arrive there, and that in itself is healthy because it means we engage all stakeholders and we come to a solution. I don’t think that, it is ever possible that everyone will have the same solution in mind for a problem,” Mr Osafo-Maafo said.

UTAG’s demand is in relation to a contentious deal involving the intended sale of SSNIT’s 60 per cent stake in four hotels to a private hotel.

The protest against the proposed sale, which was eventually terminated by SSNIT last Friday, highlighted flaws in the decision-making and accountability of the current board and management, according to UTAG.

The association argued that the leadership’s involvement in the widely-criticized deal indicates a disconnection from public opinion and a lack of understanding of responsible pension fund management.

But reacting in a radio interview on Accra based Citi FM, Mr Kofi Bosompem Osafo-Maafo said: “I think we always need to go back to what the problem is that we are trying to solve. The problem is, we have pension fund assets, peoples money, workers money. If you have a fiduciary duty to improve performance, do you not try to do something about it, is that the real cardinal thing, in looking to improve the performance of under-performing assets, I don’t think that is wrong.”

“And again, UTAG, it is universities, lets talk about how one will manage a portfolio, you cannot manage a portfolio without doing anything. Something has to be done, we just have differences in opinion and how we arrive there and that in itself is healthy because it means we engage all stakeholders and we come to a solution. I don’t think that it is ever possible that everyone will have the same solution in mind for a problem.

“Some people philosophically are even opposed to the simple fact that private investors are being brought in. You can never change their mind, some people will say that you should just take whatever available funds that SSNIT has and invest them in the SSNIT hotels ad infinito, that is the situation we think is acceptable but some people will think so. So we can never really, I think, all come to the same conclusion,” he added.

“Let me make another point worth stressing, on what management and board have achieved since 2017 and the changes that have been put in place.”

He mentioned the operational improvements that have been brought in, benefit processing time, the efficiency of the SSNIT operations being much better and the magnitude of the legacy issues that are all being resolved as a few achievements of the current board and management.

The Director-General of SSNIT said the trust listened to the objections of stakeholders and decided to terminate the sale of 60 percent of its stake in four hotels.

Explaining why it was the Board Chairperson who signed the termination notice last Friday, Mr Bosompem Osafo-Maafo said that the process to sell 60 percent stake was initiated by the board and therefore if there was a decision to terminate it, it was right the board made that move and not the management.

Organised Labour had last Friday declared an indefinite nationwide strike starting from Monday, July 15 over the proposed sale of 60 percent shares in four hotels owned by SSNIT.

The strike was to be in force until SSNIT immediately “terminates the process to sell 60 per cent of its shares in Labadi Beach Hotel, La Palm Royal Beach Resort, Elmina Beach Resort and Ridge Royal Hotel”.

SSNIT last Friday announced that it has terminated the sale of 60 percent of its stake in the four hotels.

SSNIT had explained that the process to invite private investment was started in 2010 and the current board started the process in earnest in 2017 followed by the tender process in 2018 for strategic investors.

In a statement announcing the termination on Friday night (July 12), SSNIT stated: “the Board and Management of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) wish to inform the public that the process to divest 60% of SSNIT’s stake in the hotels has been terminated.”

“We wish to assure pensioners, contributors and the public of our commitment to managing the affairs of the Trust prudently for the sustainability of the Pension Scheme,” the statement from SSNIT said.

 

 

 

 

Speaking in the radio interview with Citi FM on Monday morning Mr Kofi Bosompem Osafo-Maafo said: “the main reason that SSNIT terminated the process we listened to the objections from the stakeholders and we decided to terminate the process. If you recollect… we said will continue to engage all the stakeholders and we have been engaging them ever since this issue became public matter.”

“I think we’ve come to a point where the unions have been very vociferous and we’ve listened to that,” he said.

 

In the audio player below, listen to Osafo-Maafo’s interview with Citi FM.

 

 

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