The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) is embroiled in a mind-blowing age cheating scandal involving the President’s cousin, Laurette Korkor Asante Otchere.
Investigations by Whatsup News indicate that Mrs. Laurette Otchere who is due to clock sixty years, the statutory compulsory retirement age on November 12 2022 has reportedly employed every fictitious means to alter her date of birth (DOB) to enable her to serve another two years as a Deputy Chief Executive at the state pension management organization (SSNIT)
Last Friday 1st October, Laurette Asante Otchere, also a direct blood sister of President Akufo Addo’s Executive Secretary, Asante Bediatuo had her records entered in the SSNIT database as aged 57 and 10 months instead of 59 years old and allocated Social Security Number (SS No-E166411120021) to enable her to retire in 2024.
The source document she used to support her registration as a SSNIT contributor is the national insurance Identity card which bears a falsified date of birth (DOB) as 12/November/1964.
Per her original date of birth, Laurette Korkor Otchere should be celebrating her sixty next Month, November 12 2022 as the respective age stated in her travelling passports bears 12/11/1962 as her date of birth.
She also backdated information on the date of entry unto the scheme as 17th April 2017, being the date she was rather appointed as Director in charge of operations and Benefits.
According to the Pensions Act which governs SSNIT’s operations, the maximum age at which a person may join the social security scheme is forty-five years.
However, at the time Mrs. Laurette Korkor Otchere was appointed as one of the three deputy directors of SSNIT in 2017, she was already 54 years old, which per the SSNIT regulations, makes her ineligible to enroll on the scheme as a SSNIT contributor and a potential beneficiary of the scheme.
On her Public records, Mrs. Laurette Korkor Asante Otchere is a Ghanaian National who holds a Doctorate in Jurisprudence from Rutgers University School of Law, New Jersey, USA. She is a Labour and Employment Attorney with over 20 years of extensive legal practice.
She also holds a degree in Economics from Barnard College, Columbia University, USA and is a Certified Professional in Human Resources (SHRM-CP). Her recent working experience includes the following key positions: • Executive Director, Labour & Employee Relations, State Oriented District of Newark, NJ, USA • Contract Attorney – Hess Oil Corporation, NJ, USA • Attorney – Harvey Johnson Law Office, NJ, USA • Board Member – State of New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, NJ, USA; Deputy Director General (Operations and Benefits) of Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Board Member of Société Génèrale Ghana.
Mrs. Otchere’s case is one of many instances of crony politics of convenience of the Akuffo Addo administration.
The President’s family and friends have virtually captured all key state installations and institutions.
For instance, the President’s Executive Secretary Nana Asante Bediatuo is his cousin. Bediatuo is joined in government by his father, Kofi Darko Asante, who chairs the Governing Council of GIMPA. His mother, Mrs. Vida Asante, is the head of the Presidential Household and his brother, Kwesi Kuntu Asante, sits on the Board of Ghana Hostels.
The case of Lauretta Asante (marital name, Otchere) is just a completion of the family circle in government.
The penchant for President Akufo Addo to stuff the government with his friends and family has resulted in the government being the most corrupt in the history of Ghana, critics have noted.