By Crispina Cummings
Local Councils owing the National Social Security and Insurance Trust, NASSIT, are before the parliamentary committee on labour after they were last summoned and given an ultimatum of one month within which to pay all their debts.
Before the committee was Bo city council, for a balance of Le522m out of Le541m, the Bonthe district council for a balance of Le12m, Koinadugu for a balance of Le21m and Makeni for Le439m. All officials who represented the local government institutions said their authorities were in negotiation with NASSIT. The Bo District Council had paid all the Le26 m they owed the Trust.
Acting deputy director general at NASSIT, HamedGbondo, told the committee that their experience with Bo city council “had been a nightmare as they always failed to keep their part of an agreement unlike the Kenema Council which has shown 100% compliance”.
The committee instructed the Bo city council to make payment plan with NASSIT and take the report back to the committee Friday, July 4.
Outside the committee room, Prince Hallowel, the regional manager west told reporters that there had been a great improvement in the collection of arrears. He observed that there was no particular reason for MDA’s failure to pay staff contributions, adding that the non-payment was negatively affecting the institution.
He however said that a reasonable amount had been collected for which “I am happy”. He revealed that the institution now had officers who visit every registered institution on a quarterly basis to remind them about their payment.
(C) Politico 02/07/14
