Some public sector workers in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region, have rubbished a decision taken by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to halt salaries of public sector workers who fail to acquire a National Identification Authority (NIA) by December.
In a statement signed and issued by the Acting Controller and Accountant General, Kwasi Kwaning Bosompem on Tuesday, October 12, 2021, public sector workers without the Ghana Card will not receive pay effective December.
It said the move is to have a harmonized database to facilitate biometric and unique identification of all workers on the government payroll.
But in a random interview conducted by A1 NEWS to understand the situation some public sector workers have expressed shock by the stands of the CAGD.
They say the National Identification Authority has promised to open district registration centers across the country for people to have access to the NIA cards which have not materialized.
And therefore it is a hash decision to ask public sector workers to get the card at all costs before December ends.
Mr. Sheriff, a teacher said “you have to give a reasonable timeline, say, a year or two so that they can get time to be able to do it so that there won’t be any agitation. This is because a lot of us depend on our salaries, so halting salaries because of Ghana card will cause problems.”
A public health nurse who gave his name as Isaac said “The NIA said by the end of October, every district will have an NIA office which will make it easy for those who don’t have the card to get one. Once that is not put in place, I think it will be unfair on the part of the people not to receive their salaries by the end of December.”
Mr. Tijani Mohammed a teacher, said “it is impossible. You can’t give people just two months to be able to acquire an NIA card and link it. It will not be good for them to halt people’s salaries because our contract was not based on Ghana card.”
Mr. Zanzi a fire service officer quizzed CAGD. “So what about those that are retired and are home who cannot walk to the NIA registration centers to get their cards? What are you going to do about them? Is it that they have not worked or they are not Ghanaians?”
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Samuel Adagom|Ghana
