The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) failed to recoup GH¢2.37 million that it had given in loans between 2017 and 2018.
This is according to the Auditor General whose report of Public Boards and Corporations highlighted the Non-Performing Loan (NPR) as one of many negatives that were discovered in the audit.
According to the 2019 AG’s Audit Report, the loans were also given to eight related companies.
This borrowing by consanguinity, the AG pointed out, was illegal as it contravened Section 91(1) of Act 921.
The report urged SSNIT to recover the loans soonest and also ensure that going forward, the Trust is more due diligent in its loan granting processes.
Also, the report highlighted that 9 out of 21 agent banks of SSNIT failed to remit some GH¢26.3 million in pension contributions that they had collected for SSNIT, to the designated account at the Bank of Ghana as of the end of the 2017 and 2018 financial years respectively.
The AG points out that this was in contravention of the SSNIT Pension Contribution Collection Services Agreement with the 21 agent banks.
And for some reason, the Management of SSNIT did not impose penalty charges on the nine agent banks. This would have totaled over GH¢9.2 million.
The AG recommended that SSNIT re-compute the penalty and recover same from the agent banks. It must subsequently inform the AG of the recovery.
Failure of this the authorizing and approving officers of these contracts shall be held liable, the AG warned.
It also recommended that Management ensure that the banks transfer the unpaid balances to the SSNIT account at the Bank of Ghana without further delay.