The Auditor-General has recommended sanctions for some officials of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) responsible for the loss of $11.79 million.
The loss was from the liquidations of three of the trust’s investments with a total cash outlay of $14.768 million.
The amount is one of several irregularities at SSNIT uncovered by the Auditor-General in its 2020 report on the Public Accounts of Ghana – public boards, corporations and other statutory institutions.
According to the report, auditors noted during review of Investment Files that SSNIT liquidate three companies with a total investment of US$14,768,153.00.
The Trust, the Report said, had however not received any returns from two of the Companies for its investment for the past 15 years leading to a loss from the liquidations to a tune of US$11,794,109.
These were companies were Ningo Salt company limited with a loss of $6.08 million; Granite and Marbles Limited, $3.650 million and Canada Investment Fund for Africa (CIFA), $2.064 million.
The Report said, “We urged Management to investigate the non-performance of the investments with the aim of ensuring value for money and ensure that effective feasibility studies are carried out before investing.”
“Management responded that it inherited a lot of non-performing legacy investments and that efforts have been made to ensure that SSNIT gets the best deal when liquidations are evoked.”
According to the Auditor-General, in the case of Ningo Salt Limited (NSL), the amount lost by SSNIT was reduced from the stated US$6.08 million to US$1.93 million and that the loan of US$4.15 million granted through Ecobank Ghana Limited has fully been repaid to SSNIT with interest.
On Granite and Marbles Limited, the report said SSNIT managed to retrieve its unpaid Social Security Contributions of GH¢428,337.07 with all the loans converted to equity prior to the liquidation.
Canada Investment Fund for Africa (CIFA), on the other hand, has been under liquidation since 2015 and per the Fund Manager’s 2019 report to shareholders, the liquidation process is yet to be concluded, the report said.
Source: Mypublisher24.com