According to the Agency, the directive is in line with a restructuring process to take inventory of all modules.

Chief Executive Officer of the Agency, Justin Kodua, told Citi News that the sanitation module is the only one whose database is not available to his outfit.

[contextly_sidebar id=”5AvuIRxb003CDdfCD2D3mzhqbnTo9FeS”]He added that, the Agency will take legal action against Zoomlion should it fail to provide the database on all the 45, 000 beneficiaries who are paid by the Agency.

“Zoomlion Ghana Limited started the sanitation module back in the days of NYEP through to GYEEDA era, and from the transition from GYEEDA to YEA, there was a missing gap because even the management that we took over from, when we asked them about those files, they were complaining that during their era there was no direct link or communication between them and the service provider, and mostly payments for work claimed to have been done were paid without recourse to YEA management, and to them they have no contract with Zoomlion Ghana limited.”

Mr. Kodua said during a board meeting held on September 22, 2017, the YEA management was ordered to provide “comprehensive verification” of the 45,000 beneficiaries.

He added that, if the data they receive from Zoomlion does not tally with the 45,000 beneficiaries “I can promise you that any amount of money that has been paid to Zoomlion, we will take the necessary legal actions against them the service provider.”

The CEO said about eight different resolutions were passed at the meeting which included the suspension of allowances of board members, chief executive officer and all staff of the agency for a review.

“The board met on 22^nd September and passed several resolutions. There are about eight resolutions that were passed. Some included that henceforth, allowances which have to do with level eight to thirteen including the board of directors, the CEO and the deputies, have been suspended for review. The board wants to take a second look at it.”

“As it stands now, there are some people who are supposed to have been captured, but have not been captured, and also allowances are also paid without looking at the role the person plays within the Agency, so they want to suspend it and have a review before restoring it again,” Mr. Kodua added.

YEA deletes 18,000 names from payroll

YEA in May 2017, deleted 18,000 names from its payroll following the some discrepancies found on the Agency’s payroll system.

YEA said the allowances were suspended when it discovered that some 2,999 beneficiaries were not at post, but continued to draw allowances for no work done, while too many beneficiaries used the same E-Zwich numbers.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey & Naa K. Siaw-Marfo/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post We’ll sue Zoomlion over possible ‘ghost names’ on payroll – YEA appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Speaking at the National Policy Forum in Accra today [Monday], Mr. Ofori-Atta explained that the exercise to clean the payroll was necessary to protect the public purse, but was quick to apologise to persons whose names were mistakenly deleted.

[contextly_sidebar id=”jGyvXGTuJEtYbQMVPsHDrluclx1sYd9A”]“…We did an exercise recently in which quite a number of people were taken out of the payroll. We’ve had some remarks from some unions, but the real question for all of us in the country is that we know that there is some rot in there, we know we need to take some action and in the process of taking the action a few wrong eggs will be broken and we should apologise for that.”

He even noted that two of the Directors at Ministry of Finance were captured as ghost names erroneously.

The Minister of Finance in April 2017 directed that names of 26, 589 public sector workers be removed from government’s payroll noting that those who were to be affected had not been registered on the new Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) biometric system.

The Akufo-Addo administration has committed to cleaning out the public payroll and ridding it of ghost names and it said the directive resulted from the identification of close to 50,000  ghost names on the payroll and Pensions Registry.

The exercise is expected to save the country some GHc 35 million in payroll costs on a monthly basis or a total of over GHc 250 million in 2017 alone.

The Ministry had assured that those workers whose salaries may have been mistakenly blocked would be rectified and paid on the 15^th of May 2017.

Gov’t to undertake reforms 

Mr. Ofori Atta also reiterated government’s commitment to implementing reforms in the economic management of the country so as to lay the foundation for the country’s industrial take-off.

“The issue that keeps resounding in my mind is one of irreversibility. How do we create other institutions or policies which do not enable too much political freedom on core things that we as a country believe in? The capping of the earmarked funds is a sign of that type of irreversibility and therefore it is in that same vein that we should begin to look at whether it is revenues or expenditures or wages to reduce that operative margin, especially in election year to ensure that we do not go back to the bad old ways.”

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post We’re sorry for removing genuine names from payroll – Ken Ofori-Atta appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to NAGRAT, the directive is too sudden and will be unfair to the affected teachers.

The Ministry of Finance has instructed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, not to pay salaries to 26,589 employees who have not been captured in the ongoing SNIT biometric registration.

[contextly_sidebar id=”omTPdmoB8r0NtPq8io4gL3CyygY1jAZW”]The Ministry also announced the suspension of payment of SSNIT contribution to some 23,029 employees, because they could not be accounted for in a nationwide head count which ended on the 22nd of October 2016.

The directive if implemented, will affect about 50,000 workers.

But speaking to Citi News, Vice President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, said government must heed their calls to avoid labour unrest in the country.

“We have written to the Ministry of Finance that we will not accept a situation where at the end of this month some workers will not be paid. So long as those workers have worked and were at post working, we will not accept the situation where they will not be paid. If anything at all, let them give us a period, we asked for a one month moratorium, publish the names, let us identify our members and if they have to register biometric, they register biometrically.”

“We have tried to maintain the peaceful labour atmosphere for this month. We would advise ourselves of several labour actions that we would have to take because we feel that it is a legitimate right to pay someone who has worked. The only relationship we have with the controller and accountant general is that, controller pays those who have exercised their duties dutifully and controller should stop allowing other agencies to influence its fundamental responsibility of paying workers,” he added.

NAGRAT writes to Ministry of Finance

NAGRAT had earlier written to the Finance Ministry to suspend it directive saying such a move could result in total chaos in the country.

“Much as we agree that you may have good reasons for that decision, we wish to draw your attention that such an action, if carried out, has the potential of disturbing the peaceful environment we have enjoyed over the past few months,” NAGRAT stated in a letter addressed to the Minister of Finance.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post NAGRAT threatens demo over SSNIT biometric registration appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to NAGRAT such move could result in total chaos in the country.

“Much as we agree that you may have good reasons for that decision, we wish to draw your attention that such an action, if carried out has the potential of disturbing the peaceful environment we have enjoyed over the past few months,” NAGRAT stated in a letter addressed to the Minister of Finance.

[contextly_sidebar id=”gjIQQuWAw0EfrT1Tq1u8B75RdnkBHDFF”]The letter signed by the General Secretary of NAGRAT, Stanislaus P. Nabome also appealed to the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta to furnish them with the list of affected teachers and also give them at least a month to educate their members.

“We will appreciate if we could work together to avoid any upheaval that this action can rake up. We are confident that this will meet your prompt consideration,” the letter sighted by Citi News added.

Background

Government within the week announced that it has begun cleaning the public sector payroll adding that it will by the end of this month, April remove about 26,589 names from the payroll.

A press statement from the ministry explained that “those affected have not been registered on the new SSNIT biometric system, despite several directives to do so”.

The Ministry also announced the suspension of payment of SSNIT contribution to some 23,029 employees because they could not be accounted for in a nationwide head count which ended on the 22nd of October 2016.

“Consequently, those not registered with SSNIT, as directed shall be treated as ‘Ghost’ going forward and shall as such be removed from the payroll for April 2017. These two directives, resulting in the identification of close to 50,000 ‘Ghost’ names on the payroll and Pensions Registry, are expected to save the country some GH35 million in payroll cost on a monthly basis or a total of over GHS250 million in 2017 alone,” the statement added.

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post NAGRAT begs gov’t over deletion of ‘ghost names’ appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

These names had been captured as teachers in the government schools nationwide.

The Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper revealed this when he touted government’s achievement in drastically reducing ghost names on Ghana’s payroll system on the Citi Breakfast Show.

He attributed the success to a number of measures put in place by government including electronic verification of public sector workers.

Mr. Terkper who made this known on the Citi Breakfast Show yesterday, Friday, said they have so far been able to identify about 4,000 fake teachers in the educational sector.

[contextly_sidebar id=”kaDjIaT7RybOJ1DmlzZjpl7WkIAVhY9P”]“Today we are not talking about ghost names. I would hope that we would do a story on ghost names as to why we are not hearing that phenomenon, as to why we are able to identify 4,000 fake teachers at a time. This is because we’ve put concrete measures in place including electronic verification,” he added.

400 fake teachers picked up

It will be recalled that the Ghana Education Service in 2015 began a verification process across the country to flush out all teachers using fake certificates.

About 400 fake teachers were subsequently picked up by the Bureau of National Investigations for questioning.

‘Fake teachers’ will be punished

The Minister of Employment, Haruna Iddrisu earlier this year hinted that government will penalize teachers found to be operating with fake documents.

“We have some revelation of irregularities and fraud bothering on certificates backdating of some of the details. Backdating in particular of date of appointment and year of appointment and all that, has a consequence in computing the compensation of a particular employee. Those determined to have forged certificates and committed other irregularities will face the full rigorous of the law apart from the fact that they will be denied their compensation and their claims,” he added in an interview with Citi News.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post We’ve identified 4,000 ‘fake’ teachers – Terkper appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The presidential system gives autonomy to the President over the Executive arm of government.

It is a system of government where the Executive branch exists separately from a Legislature, to which in most cases; the former is generally not accountable to the latter.

According Mr. Mensah Bonsu, the flaws in the presidential system outweighs its positives thus, the need to switch to a better model.

He therefore recommended the Westminster system as the ideal model of governance for Ghana since it has been proven to be the best through several studies.

The Westminster system is a democratic parliamentary system of government modelled after the politics of the United Kingdom.

It is used, or was once used by most Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth nations upon being granted independence.

This system has Parliamentary privilege, which allows the legislature to discuss any issue it deems relevant, without fear of consequences.

After Ghana gained independence in 1957, the country practiced the Westminster system of governance from the year of independence to 1960.

The Minority leader is of the firm believe that Ghana should revert to this system of governance to allow Parliament scrutinize pertinent national issues.

He noted that in Ghana currently, “politics is becoming monetized” recalling that, in the lead up to election 2012, politicians spent huge sums of money on campaigning.
“…just one bill board was priced at GHC 9,500 so almost GHC 10,000. The President had many more in my constituency and mine is a very compact constituency. The President cannot finance this himself and people will come in to assist, some of them for free, but nobody is into politics as a father Christmas so they expect the President to payback somehow after his election,” he remarked.

The Suame MP insisted that the time has come for Ghana “to revisit this and to see whether or not it will not be better for us to visit the Westminster way.”

He buttressed his point by pointing out that “a study conducted indicating that emerging economies especially, the small unitary countries are better off with Westminster systems than Presidential systems.”

By: Benjamin Epton Owusu/citifmnline.com/Ghana

The post Presidential governance not good for Ghana – Minority leader appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.