The Management of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has stated that they are still looking for strategic investors for three of their hotels, La Palm, Elmina Beach Resort and Busua Beach Resort.
The Director-General of SSNIT, Kwesi Afreh Biney, said this when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Friday, November 7.
Asked whether all these hotels are struggling, he said, “Honorable chair, all three hotels are struggling. ”
Asked again whether they are still in the business of looking for a strategic investor, he answered, “Yes, we are seeking a strategic investor for La Palm, Elmina Beach Resort and Busua. However, for SSNIT Guest House, Ridge Royal and La Badi Beach Hotel, we do not intend to seek any strategic investors; we believe that these three hotels should be allowed to run on their own and make a profit. Labadi Beach hotel, for instance, in 2024 made a profit in excess of 80 million Ghana Cedis.”
SNNIT had wanted to sell the hotels under the Akufo-Addo administration, but this was halted because of the huge controversy it generated at the time.
Several stakeholders asked the then government to halt the sale. For instance, the Member of Parliament La Dade Kotopon, Rita Naa Odoley Sowah called for a cessation of the sale of the hotels. To her, the move is bad and should not be carried out.
“I am calling for the sale of the hotel to stop,” the lawmaker who joined the ‘Hands off our hotels’ demonstration, which was organised by his colleague lawmaker for North Tongu Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, said on the New Day show on TV3, Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa , then opposition lawmaker, criticised the move to sell the hotel to the then Agric Minister Bryan Acheampong.
Bryan Acheampong openly dared Ablakwa to substantiate claims regarding his Rock City Hotel’s financial status. Bryan went ahead to say that if Ablakwa is able to substantiate the claims he would gift him his properties in East Legon and some of hotels.
This followed allegations by Ablakwa that documents intercepted from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) indicate that Rock City Hotel Limited, a company owned by the Agric Minister and MP for Abetifi, is running at a loss and hence unfit to buy the lucrative and profit-making SSNIT hotels.
Acheampong categorically denied these assertions, dismissing them as baseless and without merit. “I heard Okudzeto making allegations of intercepting some documents from GRA but he has no such documents, there is nothing true in that statement, they are all lies,” Acheampong told host of Yen Nsempa, Nana Yaa Brefo on June 19.
The Minister further elaborated, stating that according to information he received from the hotel’s management, Rock City Hotel has yet to file its taxes for the year 2023 and for that reason not even GRA knows the financial status of the company to say it is operating at a loss.
“Managers of Rock City have reported to me that they haven’t filed their 2023 taxes; they will be filed by the end of June. So, they haven’t been filed yet. Where did Okudzeto get the supposed documents, he’s talking about from GRA, because the Managers of Rock City haven’t filed them yet, where did he get the said documents from?” Acheampong questioned.
But Ablakwa has told him that he does not need any of his properties after stating that he does not perform his oversight role for personal gains or gifts.
“I don’t need any of those things, I am not doing what I am doing for personal gains and gifts…I have always maintained that public officials should stay away from public properties,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, June 22.
