A Former Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana Sophia Akuffo has commended labour unions for fiercely opposing the move by the management of the Social Security and National Insurance Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to sell 60 percent stake in four of its hotels to Agric Minister Bryan Acheampong.
“God bless the labour unions,” she said in an exclusive interview with TV3’s Alfred Ocansey on Thursday, July 25.
Asked by Ocansey whether the botched deal irked her? she answered ” Yes of course, because conflict of interest is conflict of interest, you can’t be the judge and the jury, you can’t be the lawyer and the judge, you can’t be the litigant and after you have given your evidence and everything, your lawyer has done his submission and it is time to determine the outcome and now you are going to sit among the jury and you want to be part of that.”
When told that Agric Minister did not think there was a conflict of interest issue in this matter, Madam Sophia Akuffo said “Conflict of interest is not defined by the individual. Sometimes a conflict of interest, when you are managing standards, it is part of the performance standards. When you are managing ethical standards, sometimes it is simply perception. Will a reasonable man in the street, if you were to tell them of this, what will they say about it? If here, you can surmise that they will say it smells, then it smells. When you are a public person just because there is no law that says you cannot do it does not mean you should do it. Even in the Bible, it says I can do all things but not all things are good.”
Regarding the justification that the management of SSNIT gave for this deal, she said “Of course, SSNIT will justify it because they have run down the hotels and just like in the public sector a lot of public properties have been run down just so that the value will be run down and always at the end of some cycle or the other they do sweet heart deals and do this distribution among themselves. SSNIT can say I have defamed them but I don’t care.”
SSNIT announced its discontinuation of the sale of the 60% shares in the four hotels after several labour unions announced their decision to embark on a nationwide strike following approval by the National Pensions and Regulatory Authority (NPRA) for SSNIT to procced with the sale of 60% shares in the four hotels.
SSNIT assured pensioners and contributors of managing the affairs of the Trust “prudently for the sustainability of the Pension Scheme.”
Background
SSNIT in its defence said the process to sell 60% of its shares in the hotels begun in 2018 and was in its final stage and that Rock City Hotel had met all requirement to purchase the 60% shares.
He further organised a demonstration to protest against the sale of SSNIT Hotels. Various labour unions also spoke against the move which further prompted the NPRA to direct SSNIT on June 28 to suspend its negotiations with Rock City over the sale of four hotels, pending further evaluation and engagement.
However, answering questions on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, July 11, Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Ignatius Baffour Awuah confirmed that NPRA has given the go ahead for the hotels to be sold after the Authority was satisfied that SSNIT has complied with all due processes.
He said the directive from the NPRA was only to ensure that SSNIT had complied with all the processes and documentation and not to completely prevent SSNIT from selling the hotels.
“Yes, so, as a minister, I can tell you tell you on authority that NPRA has since indicated that they have seen the processes, and they think that SSNIT can go ahead.”
Source: 3news.com
