By Abdulai Fasineh Dumbuya
The National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) has prosecuted and won over 500 (five hundred) cases of fraudulent transactions, protection of contributions, and compliance issues and only lost about three due to lack of sufficient evidence; according to the Director General of NASSIT, Mohamed Fuaad Daboh.
The Director General of NASSIT made the disclosure whilst addressing the media at the Ministry of Information and Civic Education’s Weekly Press Conference held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Freetown on 17th October, 2023.
He said that the Directorate of Social Security Court was created to address the growing concerns between workers and their employers, noting that there was mostly collusion from both parties. He said that inasmuch as employers cannot register their workers with NASSIT, at the end of the day there is collusion.
“Our basic mandate is to ensure that workers commit five percent of their salary to NASSIT and employers will pay ten percent for their employers. A total of fifteen percent is contributed every month for the worker or staff,’’ he said.
He admitted that they are quite challenged with fraudulent transactions as a nation i and that the fraudulent activities are as old as NASSIT, drawing reference to NASSIT where internal collusion normally occurs.
“This all happens because there were no good systems, and not until now that we are putting things together. These frauds are perpetuated by Sierra Leoneans,’’ he said.
He noted that this is why they have always been informing the people through their radio programmes to update their records and only by following record updates that matters of fraudulent transaction would be effectively addressed, saying that the more they delay updating their records, the more the problem of fraud persists.
“When we delay updating our records, it will greatly impact our retirement time. When we delay paying our contributors, it is due to the fact that we have not been updating their records, and when it comes to benefit calculations records speak for the dead – and not the family members,” he said.
In order to address the crisis in updating records, the Director said they are using ICT to decentralize their activities, resolve all the challenges and make access simple, thereby taking the service to the doorsteps of their customers. “The first customized district established by NASSIT across the country is Moyamba District,” he said.
Asked whether NASSIT collaborates with the Informal Sector Association to enhance the social security of the workers, he said the institution is on the verge of establishing an informal skill operation that would target all players in the informal sector from the bike riders, market women to carpenters, while also minimizing the risk of retirement from business or ‘Okada’ when there is little or nothing left to show at the end of the day. “Poverty will reduce as well in the country,” the Director General said.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (18/10/23)
