Mr Ahumah Ocansey, a lawyer, on Thursday called on government to review the retirement age upwards from the current level of 60 years to help reduce the neglect, poverty and misery of pensioners.
"I add my voice to the plea for government to reflect on the proposition being advocated, that the compulsory retirement age for person
in civil and public service should be at age 65 and not 60 as enshrined in act 199 section 1, of the 1992 constitution', he said.
Mr Ocansey who was speaking at a media briefing in Accra said, the review of the act would deter public and civil servant from falsifying their age but offer them the opportunity to work longer as well as prepare
adequately for their retirement to improve their lives and livelihood.
Giving reasons to buttress his position, the Barrister-at-law noted that, in recent years there had been an enhancement and upgrading of the nation's health care delivery system which kept people very active even at the age of 60.
"Over the years, Ghana has been improving on its health delivery, with the use of better equipment, institution of modern hospitals with well trained medical professionals. Invariably, more people live longer than before and retain their vitality and usefulness into advanced age, he said.
Mr Ocansey said due to the change in technology and modern trends of the working environment which enabled more work to be done with a little energy, persons who had attain 60 years could work actively and productively.
"The working environment has considerably changed from what prevailed in the olden days of the colonial and immediate post-independence days where labour was very manual and took a high toll of energy of the working population.
"Modern technology, along with sophisticated office machinery, has enabled far more work to be done with little expenditure of energy than it
was previously."
Mr Ocansey noted that the nation also lost much wealth of knowledge and experienced when people retire from active service.
"With improved health and vigour possessed by retiring executives, it is in the best interest of the nation that they stay on a little longer for the society to derive the maximum benefit from them before they finally go home," he said.
Making reference to countries including the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Canada, he said, those nation's had pegged their retiring age at 65 years due to the enormous drain on state funds.
He said the perceived notion that upward adjustment of the retiring age would worsen the unemployment situation in the country should be set aside, suggesting that what the nation could do to address the challenge was to revisit the era of industrialisation.
Mr Ocansey was of the view that retirement age of professions including teaching, lecturing, medicine, law and the media should be varied since most of those workers remained active after they attained 60 years.
He said it was remarkable to say that former President John Agyekum Kufuor and President John Evans Atta Mills assumed office when they were
more than 60 years.
"There is no retiring age for parliamentarians. This should signal to us that age is not a barrier to one's efficiency. It becomes a barrier only in the extreme case of mental infirmity and debilitating illness."
Mr Ocansey also called on the Constitutional Review Committee to take into consideration the upward adjustment of the pension age.
Professor Kwadwo Asenso-Okyere, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana and Mr Joseph Amewode, Volta Regional Minister had made
similar calls on different platforms for the review of the retirement age.