2020 Polls: 46,000 out of the over 236,000 EC officials have been paid - Bossman Asare

GhanaWeb in March this year reported on the delayed payment of some Electoral Commission officials who worked during the December 7 general elections as presiding officers, verification officers, name list reference officers, COVID ambassadors and ballot issuers.

These officials who are yet to be paid after almost 6 months of working with the Commission have called on its leadership to speed up with payment process. They again accused the EC of failing to communicate with them on matters concerning their locked-up monies.

But speaking in an interview on Kokrokoo on Peace FM monitored by GhanaWeb, the Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Bossman Asare, has once again pleaded with affected officials to give the Commission more time as plans are underway to settle the delayed payment.

He indicated that out of the over 236,000 officials who were recruited for the 2020 elections, 46,000 have so far been paid. He added that an additional 50,000 officials are expected to be paid by the close of this week.

“It is true, some Polling Officials have still not been paid but right from last week, we started paying some of them. We have so far paid 46,000 persons we engaged over 236, 000 persons. We group them and pay in batches. It is likely for us to pay another 50, 000 by end of this week,” he assured officials.

“This election was a bit different unlike the 2019 District Assembly elections… after the elections, the money that we were expecting had to go through processes... they had to appoint a Minister among other factors. In the government cycle, all payment comes to a halt in December,” he explained.

Dr Bossman Asare added: “We have sent them letters asking that they give us some time. Plans are underway, we will take a look at our payment method. Previously, there were some challenges and we demanded the bank accounts of officials. We are even considering Mobile Money payment.”