SNNIT spent only GHc1.57m out of GHc8.34m travel budget in 2018

Employees of the

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Parts of the Trust’s 2018 report captured travel and accommodation expenses of SSNIT employees and the prudent measures put in place to cut cost.

It indicated that the Trust had a budget of GHc8.34 million for travels, but spent only GHc1.57 million out of the sum.

“Travel and accommodation expenses for the period ended 30 September, 2018, was GHc1.57 million as against a budgeted amount of GHc8.34 million. This indicated a favourable variance of 81% as a result of significant reduction in foreign travels during the period.

“Also, the amount spent on travel and accommodation was drastically reduced to GHc1.9 million in 2017 comapred to an actual send of GHc8.3 million in 2016. This constitutes a 77% reduction.”

It added that “the Trust’s Travel Policy has been amended so that all employees, including the Director General, fly Economy Class for trips below four hours duration” in order to further cut cost on travels.

The Trust also noted that it is currently collaborating with the National Identification System to leverage on their platform to reduce the cost of producing new membership cards.

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It further disclosed that SSNIT contributions for 2017 increased by 26.1%, despite experiencing a decrease of 12.26% the previous year.

An audit into the Trust’s ICT systems also led to the saving of $8.52 million, which is about half of SSNIT’s recurrent expenditure.

“Management embarked on a comprehensive audit of the Trust’s ICT systems and have identified several areas in which the Trust can recover certain costs and also cut down on recurrent support and maintenance expenditure.

“A recent re-negotiation of agreements on some ICT infrastructure, support and license fees has resulted in the saving of $8.52 million to the Trust,” the report added.