The over 9000 Fire Service personnel who have difficulty in accessing their locked funds with CDH are calling on the Acting Chief Fire Officer, DCFO Julius Kuunuor Aalebkure, to assist them recover the rest of their money.
According to the angry personnel, the service has no right to enter into any agreement with any other party to reinvest their money without their consent because one must read the agreement, understand and assign with a policy number before appending one’s signature.
This is a follow up to the Friday October 8, 2021, front page publication of the Republic Press captioned ‘9000 Firemen Chase CDH for Locked Cash.’
Personnel who only spoke on condition of anonymity said “what was the motivation for the CDH agreement, who were the faces behind and what was their interest in all these,” adding that the explanation from DOI Alex KO Asante was hollow.
Some of the personnel alleged that the four senior officers who entered agreement with CDH should come out and explain to personnel what has happened to their investment if not they will advise themselves.
The irate personnel said per the explanation given by DOI Asante, that about 500 personnel documents could not be traced during the validation process meanwhile these same personnel were part of the people who made partial withdrawal in 2018.
“What we are saying is that, we are not interested in any investment with any other company on our behalf unless each personnel are given the opportunity to read and understand the terms,” they stated.
Background
Over 9000 personnel of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) want management to clarify with regards to why after contributing 84 months to CDH Insurance Broker received as low as GH¢557.90 benefit.
Some of these angry personnel have threatened to hit the street and demand for their monies if management fails to obliged to their request after several attempt to persuade them to address the challenge concerning the CDH Insurance.
Information gathered by Republic Press (RP) indicates that GNFS and CDH Insurance Broker entered into agreement in 2013, as fund managers of personnel’s monthly contribution ranging from GH¢20.00 to GH¢100.00 base on one’s strength.
According to the agreement, Controller and Accountant General’s Department deducted from staff monthly salary and credited CDH Insurance Broker as fund managers who intern would invest the money.
The contract is such that personnel would be able to make a partial withdrawal every five years as the maturity year or decide to roll over.
“So, in 2018, we were given the option to make a partial withdrawal of GH¢1,500.00, where many of us took advantage to withdrew some of our investment while others too rolled over,” some angry personnel stated.
A group of senior officers expressing their disappointment to RP only on condition of anonymity said after the Security and Exchange Commission revoked the license of CDH Insurance Broker in 2019, management of the service failed to communicate to personnel the state of affairs regarding their investment with CDH but “when we individually verified, we were told by CDH that management have taken over.”
“We only received GH¢557.90 in July 2021, after personnel started agitating and demanding to know the state of CDH Insurance whether the money accredited to them was the total of their seven years contribution,” they questioned.
“We want to know who signed the agreement, what was their benefit and why didn’t management allow the individuals to deal with CDH because each personnel have a unique insurance number.”
Management reaction
When RP visited management of GNFS to respond to the matter, Divisional Officer Grade I (DOI) in charge of salaries, Alex K O Asante, said the GH¢557.90 paid in July 2021, is half of personnel investment validated by the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the other half would be paid in due time even though they couldn’t give definite time lines.
DOI Asante said the service could not verify the amount each personnel contributed to CDH Insurance Broker “so the amount validated by SEC is what we are working with now.”
“If we are to pay each person the 50% in the first payment, the money will not be sufficient for all so we decided to pay 40.15% which is the GH¢557.90 and that is what personnel received in the first week of July this year.” He added
DOI Asante revealed that during the validation period, the service again realised that at the time CDH Insurance Broker license was revoked, it had enrolled 9000 personnel of which 8500 documents were detected while 500 personnel’s documents could not be retrieved from the fund manager.
“A lot of our men are complaining of being shortchanged but whose fault is it, no one knew this revocation would happen and therefore we are assuring every personnel that monies that have been validated by SEC due them would be paid to them,” he stated.
The paper’s visit to CDH Company, around Ghana Immigration Service Headquarters to ascertain the fact of the matter, some management at the facility seems not to know any agreement between the fund manager and GNFS even though check indicates that CDH have received back their license to operate.
