By Morlai Sesay
The National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT) commemorated its 21 years of effective service delivery with a thanksgiving service on Sunday, 21st January 2024, at the New Life Ministries International Miracle City, Ross Road, Freetown with the theme: Regular Update of Members Records; A means to easy access one's benefit.
Declaring the purpose of the August event, the Administrative Deputy Director General (DDG, Admin), Mohamed Gondoe, explained that the primary purpose of staging the much-anticipated event at the Ministry's Headquarters was to express their profound appreciation to the Almighty God for giving the leadership of NASSIT the strength and wisdom to deliver on the mandate upon which the commission was established. Gondoe expressed the Commission’s gratitude to the New Life Ministries International Miracle City for allowing the commission to commemorate the 21st annual thanksgiving service at the New Life Ministry. He explained that NASSIT is deeply grateful to its esteemed members who have always complied with the commission's rules and regulations and, at the same time, count on NASSIT for their retirement benefits.
Delivering the keynote address, the Director General of the National Social Security and Insurance Trust (NASSIT), Mohamed Fuaad Daboh, affirmed that the anniversary is specifically about celebrating the enviable developments that took place in the previous year and asking God for His divine favors on the commission in the year ahead. He acknowledged that the commission has always been up and running in terms of compliance and meeting the expected demands of its members. That, he said, is why the people have always had trust in the commission.
Narrating some of the stringent measures that were taken into consideration so that the public could restrain themselves from flouting the NASSIT rules, Daboh pinpointed a patriotic Sierra Leonean whose influence helped the commission to achieve such a feat he said is the current Chief Justice, Babatunde Edwards who is a member of the board of Trustees at NASSIT.
Daboh explained that Section 131 subsection (3) of the 1991 Constitution of Sierra Leone gave Edwards the power to establish additional divisions of the High Court of Sierra Leone and Constitutional Instrument No. 4 of 2019, which he said created eight divisions of the High Court, among which is the Industrial and Social Security Division.
He noted that Babatunde Edwards trained judges, magistrates, and judicial staff in accordance with instrument 3 of the aforesaid Constitutional Instrument and that they worked in the Industrial and Social Security Division to hear and determine labour, industrial relations and social security, industrial disputes, employer and employee relationships, trade dispute referred to the court by the Ministry responsible for Labour or a trade group council, failure to pay national social security and insurance scheme contributions, application and interpretation of the provision contained in National Social Security and Insurance Trust Act 2001, or any other application for the recovery of debt owing as contribution or penalty through garnishee proceeding, etc.
The Director General said the underwriters of the scheme knew that workers might want to live glowing when they retired but also realized that some people would not be boarded to make their contributions. As a result, they have put in place a mechanism to see that the social security contributions are recovered.
He further stated that the Social Security Act makes provisions for legal actions to be taken should someone or institutions fail to meet their obligations, noting the creation of the Industrial and Social Security Division of the High Court and the role of the Magistrate Courts, which revealed the strategic position of the Judiciary in ensuring that compliance to provisions in the act is enforced.
He stressed that the courts aim not to put defaulters behind bars but to ensure that they recover monies that have not been paid but would have been paid.
Daboh pointed out that the commission also deals with several issues, and among them are offenses under the NASSIT Act 2001, Act No. 5 of 2001, especially those common offenses such as non-registration of employees as in section 30(1) and other offenses under section 33(1).
"This is not a threat to any individual or institution. A few weeks back, an individual was held culpable for flouting the NASSIT rules. We are entreating all members to do the needful so that the process could be a win-win situation for us all", he implored.
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