BY ALHAJI ALHASAN ABDULAI
All legal practitioners such as Mr. Akoto Ampaw an Accra legal practitioner who succeed in advancing good arguments in court deserve commendation. He has? ?saved a situation and offered advice to state owned organizations to act in accordance with? ?laid down rules governing their operations. ?He said this after successfully getting an Accra District court to throw out the case involving policy Think Tank, IMANI Ghana and the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT). The nation?s pension?s regulator in a lawsuit on January 17 dragged the Executive Director of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe to court for allegedly evading the contributions of his staff to SSNIT.
But Lawyer Akoto Ampaw in opposition to SSNIT?s claim told the court presided by His Worship Charles Boateng that his client was dragged before the court for delays in submitting documents covering the payroll information of IMANI staff to SSNIT.
After presenting evidence of the case, he prayed the court to acquit and discharge Franklin Cudjoe for no crime committed.
The presiding Judge in his wisdom reasoned with Lawyer Akoto Ampaw and accordingly dismissed the case and in line acquitted and discharged Franklyn Cudjoe
Lawyer Ampaw exclusively told Citi News he would not be surprised seeing SSNIT bouncing back in a Rambo style with new charges against his client.
?It is a vindication of our client, and we are very pleased with the court?s ruling on the matter, but knowing the background to this case, we will not be surprised if they come back at us again; because the prosecutor even attempted to do so in court as she tried to raise new charges and the judge rightly said that was not part of the earlier charges brought against our client.?
By the judgment, it meant that SSNIT can no longer bring the same allegation against IMANI in respect of submission of documents in any court in Ghana.
Other members of IMANI Ghana?s legal team include Lawyer Hassan Tampuli and Lawyer Kofi Bentil who is also vice President of IMANI Ghana.
The primary aims of establishing the SNIIT is to get the organization deduct percentages of workers pay and some contribution from their employers. The amounts generated are required to be invested in profitable ventures. SNIIT through their field staff are required to rope in all organizations with staff into the scheme. However the question to ask is, has SNIIT lived up to expectation so far? Many people we spoke say the answer is no. ?It is most likely that there are still many organizations out there with staff which have not yet been registered with the organization. What needs be done is to introduce amnesty to attract all those organizations into the scheme. SNIIT must do this with human face without applying strict sanctions to their law. This way they would rope in more organizations and a lot of workers onto the SNIIT scheme. While the nation would benefit from the contribution of the workers the workers themselves would also benefit when they go on retirement
Executive Director
EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
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