SOTTIE CAUTIONS WORKERS WHO FALSIFY DOCUMENTS (PAGE 21)

Story: A. Kofoya-Tetteh, Koforidua

THE Controller and Accountant-General, Mr Christian Tetteh Sottie, has warned that his outfit will deal drastically with any worker covered by the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) pension scheme who falsifies documents to be put on Cap 30.
At the moment, the payment of end-of service benefits under the Cap 30 is more enhanced than that of the SSNIT pension scheme.
Mr Sottie, who gave the warning when interacting with pensioners in Koforidua at the weekend, said it had been the practice of some retired workers of the SSNIT Pension Scheme to falsify their retirement documents to enable them to be put on Cap 30.
He said the practice, which is a criminal act, would not be tolerated and that anybody found to have indulged in the act would be handed over to the police for prosecution.
"We have detected such a serious crime and we are now very vigilant and anybody found to have falsified his or her retirement documents to be put on Cap 30 would be promptly arrested and handed over to the police for prosecution," Mr Sottie stressed.
With regard to how best to address pension issues, Mr Sottie stated that the best thing to do was to contact his outfit or one's employers for redress, but not to be on the airwaves, adding "going to the radio stations cannot help, since we are the only people to solve such problems”.
He said the delay in computing workers' pension was primarily due to difficulties in knowing one's actual grade at the time of going on retirement.
Mr Sottie, therefore, appealed to employers to notify the Controller and Accountant-General's Department (CAGD) with such information on time.
He also told the gathering that some unscrupulous junior workers had been demanding as high as GH¢200 to handle the files of pensioners.
Mr Sottie, therefore, advised anybody who had paid for the processing of pension documents to report to his outfit.
He said that would make it possible to identify the perpetrators for disciplinary action to be taken against them.
"Somebody just reported to me that a messenger had demanded GH¢200 from him to carry his file from one office to the other to be processed, but when we decided to give him the money to be given to him as a trap to be arrested, the pensioner refused with the explanation that he did not want to cause somebody's arrest," Mr Sottie said.
He, therefore, asked pensioners to be bold and report such issues to his outfit for the culprits to be sanctioned.
The National Chairman of the Pensioners Association, Mr E.O. Ashiley, said although payment of the monthly pension was normally done by the middle of the month, some banks could not effect payment on time.
He, therefore, advised pensioners encountering such a problem to change their bankers, adding that the association would help pensioners to open accounts if necessary.
The pensioners, for their part, called for prompt payment of their monthly pensions.
They also asked the CAGD to involve them when identifying their dead colleagues to remove ghost names from the payroll.