THE GREATER Accra regional branch of the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the National Service Secretariat (NSS) and Government to assure that the recent increment in the allowance of service personnel is implemented.
NAPSA Greater Accra branch has also asked the President Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration “to come clear on the specific date they intend to have the allowance take effect.”
The Ministry of Finance under the former President Mahama administration in December 2016 gave the approval to a request to increase the allowance of personnel from GH¢350 to GH¢ 559.04, representing a 60 percent upward adjustment which was supposed to take immediate effect.
As at the 30th January 2017, according to the president of NASPA-Greater Accra, Kojo S.A. Danquah, the current administration has not paid them the salary which has already been approved by the former regime.
“It is pertinent to note that, personnel were met with shock and total dismay when we visited our respective banks with the hope and enthusiasm to walk home smiling with GH¢ 559.04 which turned out to be a fiasco as our accounts were only credited with the usual GH¢ 350 at a time when the 12 percent increment for public sector workers had taken effect.”
“Leadership of NASPA successfully met with the new management of the scheme the next day which was 31st January 2017 and per our discussion it emerged that, the managers of the scheme were neither committed nor otherwise, to paying the approved rate,” he said.
The aggrieved personnel have therefore called on government and the scheme “to tell us the specific amount that is being captured in the budget.”
BY Melvin Tarlue