Civil Servants to Enjoy New Salaries in July

Alhaji Ziblim Yakubu, National President of the Civil Servants Association (CSA), has said new salaries together with arrears based on the new minimum wage, would be paid to civil servants at the end of July.

He explained that payment could not be effected in June because negotiations were not completed in time for it to be computerised by the Controller and Accountant-General's Department.

Alhaji Yakubu said this during a meeting with civil servants in the Upper West Region at Wa.

He did not disclose the level of increase adding that it would not be in their interest to always make such increases public.

The National President said the association would fight for the restoration of CAP 30 or the institution of a parallel pension scheme to take care of civil servants.

Alhaji Yakubu said the government has increased the civil servants medical fund from 3.2 billion cedis to 5.5 billion cedis and the Upper West Region's share has been adjusted from 114 million to 190 million cedis.

Mr Smart Chigabatia, Executive Secretary of the CSA called on the government to abolish the payment of rent based on percentage of salary on government residential units and decentralise payment to enable district assemblies to maintain the units.

The Regional Chairman of the association, Mr James Dasah, appealed to the government to make arrangements for civil servants to acquire skills in Information Technology (IT).

"Some civil servants serving outside the cities have never tried their hands on a computer and we should not create a situation where we will have a rural civil servant and an urban one", Mr Dasah added.

Incentive packages, he said, should also be made available to civil servants serving in rural areas just like their colleagues in the teaching and nursing professions.