Attah Krufi addressing the press
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA), Hayford Attah Krufi, has called for prosecutorial powers to be granted the Authority to enable it prosecute companies that fail to comply with the National Pensions Law, (Act 766, 2008).
Speaking at a training programme organized by NPRA for some selected journalists on Thursday in Accra, Mr Krufi stressed the need for the state to grant the authority prosecutorial powers.
The workshop was aimed at updating journalists on the implementation of the tier three pensions and to give the required skills for effectively reporting on pension issues.
Journalists were urged to be mindful of their reportage about pension related matters.
“If we want NPRA to be an effective regulator, then we must also give NPRA the power to prosecute,” he said.
He added “we are calling for prosecutorial powers because the law says that payments of tier one and tier two are mandatory and the law itself, there are sections in the Act that says that anybody who avoids paying must be subjected to criminal prosecution and it can be either custodial, which is imprisonment or it can be a fine.”
“But then if you set up a provision like that and you do not give power to an institution to prosecute, then it’s like you going for a wild goose chase,” according to him.
“At the moment, we have to get the Attorney-General to undertake the prosecution but the process is not very clear,” the CEO said.
“SSNIT has got the power and it was very emphatic in the Act that’s what we call the Saturday Court for example, so they have the power to prosecute but NPRA being the regulator does not have the power,” he noted.
The prosecutorial powers, he said, would help to expand the operations of NPRA and effectively speed up compliance with the Act.”
He indicated that “so we have people in the organizations that will write to us. Since 2010, there has not been any prosecution of a tier two pension avoider so we have relied on effective compliance visit.
Contributions
According to him, there are about 34 corporate trustees currently operating in the pension industry.
By Melvin Tarlue