MP for Nabdam takes govt. to task on workers' allowances

Accra, May 22, GNA - Mr Boniface Gambila, Member of Parliament for Nabdam Constituency in the Upper East Region, has asked the Government to upgrade and review Travel and Transport, Out-of-Station allowance and per diem for Civil Servants.

He argued that this was very necessary in view of increased prices of goods and services.

Throwing more light on the issue, on which he had queried the Minister of Finance on the floor of House, the legislator observed that it had been almost 13 years since the Travel and Transport (T&T), Out of Station allowance and per diem for Civil Servants were reviewed.

Mr Gambila told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Accra that despite a draft on the upward review on such allowances, they have not yet become operational.

'How can a senior government worker be given GHc 24 and junior GHc 16, the minimum cost of lodging in a sub standard hotel in Accra is about GHc 50?' the MP asked?

According to the MP, who is also a former National Director of the National Service, the low rates of the allowances is a recipe for corruption, and urged the government and its economic management team to work fast to review the allowances.

'Do you think the Civil Servant can travel on such meager allowance, stay comfortably in an environment and work productively for the country?

'The fact is that production decreases, and when it does, government is paying workers for no work done, which is not the workers fault, but rather the economic management team of the government?,' Mr Gambila queried.

He urged government to work hard and find a temporal solution to meager allowances of Civil Servants allowances as they wait for the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, which had been handling the proposed review for the past seven years.

Mr Gambila underlined the need for more social intervention programmes, such as the National Health Insurance Scheme, the School Feeding Programme, free maternal health care, and free metro transport for school children, to mitigate the economic hardships as the power of civil servants allowances continued to fall.

GNA