Mr. President, I like you, but I no longer trust your government on pensions. Sorry

It is mortifying to learn that the current government, apparent practitioners of social democratic values have by their actions on pensions showed they cannot be trusted by their core base. The latest in the twisted and horrifying fate of Ghanaian workers is that the government has secretly began an amendment process to change the Pension Act to fit an ill-transparent plan on the usage of pension funds without the involvement of the necessary stakeholders; workers, welfare groups and policy makers. This was not how the pension reforms culminating in Act 766 came about. There were very widely held consultative meetings and discussions.

Citi FM reports that 12 labour unions believe and ‘’accused government and Parliament of disrespecting unions by amending sections of the Pensions Act without their knowledge. They claim the amendment when approved by the President will lead to a decrease in their tier one contributions. The Executive Secretary of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG), Isaac Bampoe-Addo who addressed the media also accused government of using the amendment as a ploy to divert attention from their earlier demands on the payment of their tier two contributions.

“The amendment at this point in time cast doubts on the motive of government in the implementation of the pension reform,” he said. “the amendment could lead to a decrease in the payment of the tier one contributions to workers.

Pension reforms far-sightedly started by the previous NPP government had all the markings of a good pension plan for all Ghanaian workers who were constantly short-changed by the rather unaccountable Social Security and National Insurance Trust. Indeed, the previous government had real pension professionals, actuarial scientists whose only condition for accepting to lead SSNIT was non-interference from government. In the case of the first pension managing director under the previous NPP government, it took him close to a year before accepting to work independently. His tenure was gratifying. He had prepared SSNIT to not only account properly but had a much befitting balance sheet and a clear sustainable plan to keep the trust in good stead for the next two decades even without continuous worker contributions.

Unfortunately nothing good can be said about the management of SSNIT since 2009. The pension reforms have been rendered useless first by deliberately not resourcing the National Pensions Regulator (NPRA) to be able to take charge and implement the reforms. Unaccountable characters had either by design or nature manned the board of the NPRA since 2009.

Until 2014, the board of the NPRA interfered with all decisions management took for the worse and in most cases acting as management. Yet, the tier two pensions that should have been properly supervised by a functional NPRA were all illegally kept and surreptitiously managed for nearly FOUR years returning less than 3% out of the promised 17% averaged treasury bill rates in the four years. There was no accountability. We ended up this year with the harrowing knowledge that millions of tier two pension funds had gone missing and as we know today, there is NOT a single source in government nor the NPRA that can tell Ghanaian workers what exactly their tier tow pension funds had accumulated and where those funds are.

Sorry Mr. President, I do not trust your government on pensions at all and quite frankly does not befit your party’s Social Democratic tag. It seems inaptly applied here. I want to believe Ghana's development partners will take a cue from such harrowing accounts of how livelihoods could be decimated under precarious management of a developing country’s pensions and advice accordingly since frankly all policy-oriented think tanks in Ghana do not seem to have a listening ear and implementation hands on crucial development matters for some time now. But we are still interested in helping this country beyond the arcane politics. Next week, my think tank, IMANI will publish the list of 5 public sector agencies that are providing some inspiration beyond the dark clouds that seem not to go away.

A very dry merry Christmas to all Ghanaian workers.

Respectfully yours,

Franklin Cudjoe

Founding President & CEO, IMANI

www.imanighana.com

I never had HIV/AIDS...It was all lies-Ambassador

Joyce Dzidzor Mensah, Ghana’s highly respected HIV/AIDS Ambassador, has told News-One she had never tested positive for HIV but was only telling the nation and the world on a lie just to satisfy her selfish interest.

Joyce has claimed over the years that she was HIV positive but was a healthy person because she was on antiretroviral drugs.

She has had support and funding from several organizations, institutions, banks and civil society in her campaign across the country on how to prevent HIV and how persons who have tested positive can live healthily and happily with the virus.

Surprisingly, Joyce, 27, has told 'News-One' she was only a scammer and that she decided to engage in a wild public deceit so as to get a place to lay her head at a time her neighbors were wrongly accusing her of having HIV.

“I was known as the HIV ambassador. The story I shared in the past years was a fusion of my story and the stories of others. The truth of the matter is, I was never infected with HIV,” she said.

Meanwhile Dzidzor has toured several Ghanaian schools and mounted international platforms to fight the stigma against HIV & AIDS victims as well as encouraging young men and women to abstain from premarital sex and unprotected sex.

Below is exactly what Dzidzor said:

I met a man in my church where I used to fellowship. We fell in love but I didn’t know of his HIV status.

Though he knew he was HIV positive, he never told me. A member of the church who is a nurse once saw me with him and she called me to advise me. The nurse advised me to be careful with him because she knew of his HIV status. Unfortunately for me, I met the nurse just a day after I had sex with the man.

I then confided in the nurse and she asked me to quickly report at the hospital so that I can be given PEP (Post Exposure Profilaxis). I did exactly that in order not to contract the HIV virus.

I became pregnant though, but I decided to keep the pregnancy.

My boyfriend fell sick and died before I had the baby. People stigmatized me without knowing if I contract HIV from him or not. I was eventually beaten and thrown out of the house I was living in with my parents. Having nowhere to stay, I went to live in the secretariat of the associations of persons living with HIV.

I prayed along and behaved as if I had HIV too just to have a place to lay my head and learn from people living with HIV. I attended a lot of workshops organized by NGO’s on HIV just to equip myself with information. I heard lots of HIV interesting stories from people on stigma related issues.

At a point in time, I accepted and lived like a person living with HIV. And I always told my story as if I was living with HIV, I shared my story based on what I went through just to let people know that people with HIV are normal human beings.

I would have contracted the virus and probably died but God saved me. That was why going to schools to educate them became my passion just for students to abstain from premarital sex.

Why I Acted As A Person Living With HIV

I realized that there was no way of defending myself when people started gossiping about me in my neighbourhood. It was because my boyfriend in the church died of AIDS and my church members and neighbours knew he died of AIDS. There was no way I could ever defend myself.

At a point, I had to accept the situation at hand. I knew there was going to be a time the truth about my status was going to come out, and this is the time.

I plead with the general public and my fans not to be disappointed in me for acting all these years. It was worth it because a lot of lives were saved through my advocacy work.

I also sincerely apologise to the hundreds of churches I have been to with my message both in Ghana and abroad to forgive me. I did it to fight HIV stigma and discrimination.

I also plead with schools, institutions and banks who have all benefited from my story to forgive me.

I now therefore want to thank all who have supported me throughout these years one way or the other.

Why The Confession Now?

I want to officially announce to the general public that I am no more the HIV ambassador due to the fact that the First Lady has been made the HIV ambassador.

Also, there have been rumours in town that I am dead but as at now I don’t know the source of the information. I was out of the country for three months now and I returned only to be receiving calls and text messages asking if I’m dead. My stepfather nearly collapsed when he heard the news about my death. I want to inform everyone that I am not dead.

2 dead in shootings at Aflao

Two people have been shot and killed at their home in Aflao in the Volta Region. Three others who sustained gunshot wounds have also been rushed to the Aflao District hospital. Landlord's wife on admission at the Aflao District Hospital Joy News’ Volta Regional correspondent, Ivy Setordzi, reports that the five occupants of the house – the landlord, his wife and their child as well as two nephews, were attacked suddenly in their home by some unknown gunmen at about 5 am Monday morning. The Landlord also on admission at the Aflao District Hospital

The two nephews were shot during the attack and died instantly.

Eyewitnesses said the police failed to respond to their distress call saying that they do not have fuel in their vehicle.

Source:www.myjoyonline.com

Dust To Dust-Exopa Boss returns to his Maker

Few days after his untimely demise, former Chief Executive Officer of Exopa Modeling Agency, Ibrahim Sima has been laid to rest at the Tema Community 9 Cemetery in Ghana .

After a brief Islamic prayer by some loved ones and religious leaders, he has returned to dust from which he was created. He died on last week Thursday, night at the Police Hospital in Accra after being rushed there from Nsawam prison where he was serving a jail term for trafficking narcotics.

Chief Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, DSP Vitalis Aiyia explained that the convicted CEO was playing football when he collided with the goalkeeper but did not complain of injuries at the time. Later in the evening he started complaining of pains and was rushed to the Nsawam Government Hospital where his situation deteriorated. He was sent to the Police Hospital where he died.

The PRO was unable to immediately confirm the cause of death but said investigations are still ongoing. The EXOPA boss was arrested on September 7, 2009 at the Kotoka International Airport when a luggage search revealed tubers of yam in which were embedded narcotic substances.

Ibrahim was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 2011 for the attempted narcotics smuggling.

Sima denied the charges and told officials of the Narcotics Control Board, who interrogated him after his arrest, that the yams were given to him by one Salifu who resides in Nima, a suburb of Accra, to be given to a friend for a fee of 3,000 Euros.

Convicted Exopa CEO, Ibrahim Sima dies

He died on Thursday night at the Police Hospital in Accra after being rushed there from Nsawam prison where he was serving a jail term for trafficking narcotics.

Chief Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Prisons Service, DSP Vitalis Aiyia explained that the convicted CEO was playing football when he collided with the goalkeeper but did not complain of injuries at the time.

Later in the evening he started complaining of pains and was rushed to the Nsawam Government Hospital where his situation deteriorated. He was sent to the Police Hospital where he died.

The PRO was unable to immediately confirm the cause of death but said investigations are still ongoing.

The EXOPA boss was arrested on September 7, 2009 at the Kotoka International Airport when a luggage search revealed tubers of yam in which were embedded narcotic substances.

Ibrahim was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment in 2011 for the attempted narcotics smuggling. Sima denied the charges and told officials of the Narcotics Control Board, who interrogated him after his arrest, that the yams were given to him by one Salifu who resides in Nima, a suburb of Accra, to be given to a friend for a fee of 3,000 Euros.