The government has received a stern warning from the Senior Staff Association-Universities of Ghana (SSA-UoG) not to interfere with their pensions as part of the debt restructuring scheme.
In a press release, the group said that the initiative was indifferent to the economic circumstances, which are getting worse by the hour.
They warned that they would vehemently oppose any attempts to implement the scheme and expressed concern that the government may try to access the pension funds of its members as part of a debt restructuring program.
"We, the senior staff of public universities in Ghana, consider the government's move to be inconsiderate to the everyday Ghanaian worker, who nonetheless provides priceless services to Mother Ghana. even in these intolerable and challenging economic times. This, at best, may be characterized as being self-inflicted by those who were expected to start initiatives to lessen the unrelenting suffering of the average Ghanaian.
The statement said that "we will fight tooth and nail against this callous decision by the Government and urge that under no circumstances should government touch our hard-earned pension payments."
The Association also issued a warning to the fund management companies in charge of their pensions not to work with the government to carry out the scheme.
To make sure that our contributions are not impacted by this alleged "Debt Restructuring Programme," SSA-UoG sent a warning to the National Pensions Regulatory Authority (NPRA), our fund managers (Petra Trust), and our board of trustees.
In order to properly restructure its debt, they advised the government to run a lean government by reducing the number of Ministers and other appointees, reducing the number of SUVs in Presidential convoys, and also slashing the wages of all government officials.
We think that these actions—rather than haircutting investors' investments—will significantly contribute to lowering government spending and, consequently, improving Ghana's debt predicament. We would want to use this occasion to urgently request that the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations recalculate any accumulated interest on our Tier-2, the Association said.