Selection of Rock City for SSNIT Hotels clean, transparent – Elizabeth Ohene

The Board Chair of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), Elizabeth Ohene, has justified the integrity of the process that led to the selection of Rock City Hotel as the preferred company to acquire a 60% stake in four SSNIT-owned hotels.

In an article titled “Coming out of the Hotels,” Ohene stated that she would assume responsibility and expect to be prosecuted if any evidence of corruption is found in the process leading up to the decision to pick Rock City, owned by Agriculture Minister Bryan Acheampong.

According to her, the process was transparent and adhered to all relevant regulations. She emphasized that SSNIT did not seek the president’s permission because it is not obliged to do so for

“I am able to say with the utmost certainty that the process that led to the selection of Rock City as the Preferred Bidder was clean, above board and met every rule and regulation and can withstand every scrutiny.

“Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa claims to have God and Ghana on the side of his campaign, and I would hope all of God’s Angels and Ghana’s investigative agencies, temporal and spiritual, would examine the process and tell the world if they find any irregularity or trace of corrupt practice. Indeed, if they should find any evidence of corruption, I will assume and accept responsibility and expect to be prosecuted.”

She added “Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa appears to know something I don’t. The Board of Trustees certainly did not go to get permission or even inform the President of the Republic or any Minister about the decision to seek a strategic investor to take a stake in the hotels.

“The Board did not need such permission, was not obliged to inform the government and did not do so. I have seen no evidence in the records of past Boards going to the government or the President to get permission to make an investment decision.

“The Board did not involve the President, nor the Minister, nor the government in the process. The Act that governs SSNIT makes no such provision and I had thought it was in everyone’s interest that the pension fund is kept away from government interference.

“Obviously, a demonstration is more sexy when it ends at Jubilee House, but I assure the Honourable Member for North Tongu he was out by a long shot.”

North Tongu MP Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa who led a demonstration against the sale of the Hotels to Bryan Acheampong has already petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to investigate the transaction while questioning the legitimacy of the bidding process.