Massive withdrawals at SSHFC amid Covid

He said: “The rigidity of the SSHFC Act and regulations led to big delay in members’ ability to be satisfactorily served until the regulations were amended with provisions such as reduced cooling off periods”.

SSHFC boss was speaking on Tuesday at the opening ceremony of an election that is held every three years to Federated Pensions Scheme (DPS),? at a forum held at a local hotel in Bakau.

The ceremony witnessed the election of a new federated pension scheme representative at the Board of the Social Security Housing and Finance Corporation.

During the process, Dr. Seedy Drammeh of GRA, Abubakar Darbo of GRTS and Tamsir Sallah of GPA contested for the post. However, GRTS’ Abubakar Darbo was elected as the new federated pension scheme representative on the SSHFC Board for next three years.

According to Tambedou, the high level of staff numbers continue to be a burden on the corporation, saying they are managing through natural attrition and transfers and re-skilling in other departments within the corporation. The relatively low salary level of the corporation compared to other sister State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) is also “a challenge which we hope to review through a proper study.”

Tambedou said the election of the federated pension scheme representative is a requirement of clause 5(1)(h) and 7(1) of the SSHFC Act 2015.

He thanked the outgoing FPS representative Tamsir Sallah, who has been a board member since May 2018.

In his report, Mr. Sallah, the outgoing federated pension scheme representative, said during his three year term, at least 11 board meetings were held excluding the extra ordinary meeting held due to exigencies.

He thanked the fund members for the confidence reposed in him to serve as FPS representative in the board for the past three years.

For his part, the newly elected federated pension scheme representative, Abubacarr Darboe, returned gratitude to the federated pension scheme teams for the trust and confidence they have in him in electing him to the position and assured them that he would live up to expectations and work hand-in-glove with the Board.