SSNIT's US$185m locked up in related loans, housing project – A-G's report
The Auditor-General advised SSNIT to set up proper ways of looking at projects of the same nature going forward.
Jonas Danquah 
The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has a sum of about USD 185 million locked up in a housing project in the Greater Accra Region, a 2019 report by the Auditor General’s office has revealed.
The report, which covers over 1,000 pages, states that SSNIT had invested a large sum of money into a housing project at two locations- Klagon and Sakumono- but it seems the investment did not yield any substantial returns.
This step was in sharp contrast to the dictates of Section 91 (1) of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 which urged all public corporations to “ensure the efficient management of the financial resources of the public corporation including the collection and receipt of moneys due to that public corporation.”
Page 81 of the document reads that:
“In spite of the provision of Section 91(1) of the PFM Act 2016, Management of SSNIT sunk a cedi equivalent of US$185,250,000.00 in a housing Project at Klagon and Sakumono. The Project is halted and it is being managed by RSS, a Joint Venture Company belonging to SSNIT and RegimanuelGray.”
The report goes on to say that the Auditor General’s office advised SSNIT to heed to a recommendation from RSS on the need to rent out the houses in order to minimise what was being lost on the project.
In fact, the report said that after a visit by the Auditor-General’s Department, it came to light that “out of the 32 completed housing units, only two of them were sold. Also, none of the 9 flats completed blocks at Klagon, Sakumono site was sold.”
The Auditor-General concluded that “no due diligence was performed on the investment, the inability to anticipate the increased supply of houses in the housing market, coupled with wrong estimation of the project cost resulted in this state of affairs. Over US$185,250,000.00 of Pensioners’ funds has been locked up in the investment.”
The report concluded on the matter by asking SSNIT to set up proper ways of looking at projects of the same nature going forward.
