Sunyani area accountant of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Amos Donkor,has expressed worry that the huge indebtedness of private establishments across the country posed a serious threat to the operations of the Trust and would have negative repercussions on their employees. Mr. Donkor was addressing more than 200 employers from Techiman municipality, Kintampo and Nkoranza districts at a workshop at Techiman.
The workshop, under the theme; “the role of employers under the SSNIT Employer Member Account Reconciliation (EMAR) system”, was aimed at educating employers on the need for them to update their records with the Trust by paying the contributions of their employees regularly and promptly.
Mr. Donkor expressed concern about the delay of employers in paying their workers’ contributions to the Trust, saying the practice did not allow employees to benefit from the National Health Insurance Scheme. He stressed the need for employers to make prompt and regular payments of workers’ contributions to enable them to access the benefits and warned that it is illegal for them to withhold such contributions.
The Techiman branch manager, Collins Opoku explained that the EMAR system is an in-house application mechanism developed by SSNIT to estimate employers’ indebtedness at the end of every month and to prompt them to settle their debts appropriately.
