Court orders NIA to pay 'unlawfully' suspended salary owed Dr. Ahadzie

The Accra High Court has ordered the National Identification Authority (NIA) to pay its former Executive Secretary, Dr William Ahadzie, his three-year outstanding salary.

According to the court, the “unlawfully’ suspended salary from December 2013 to June 2016 should include interest from 2016 at current rates.

In addition, the ruling indicated that the former Executive's social security contributions to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) from the time of the suspension of his salary to December 2016 should be paid to SSNIT and SSNIT should compute and pay him his pension entitlements from 2016 to date.

An additional cost of Ghc 10,000 was slapped on NIA to be paid to Dr. Ahadzie. On his part, Dr Ahadzie was asked to pay a sum of GHc 3,000 to NIA and return the Authority’s saloon car in his possession.

Dr Ahdazi was asked to proceed on indefinite leave by the Governing Board in 2013 to pave the way for a committee to investigate following a petition levelled against him by the then-acting head of ICT of the NIA, Osei Kwame Griffiths.

He later sued the authority in court.

After almost 4 years of trying to seek justice, he finally proceeded to file a case in the High Court on grounds of wrongful dismissal. This has resulted in the landmark ruling in his favour.

Dr Ahadzie said he was satisfied with the ruling expressing his faith in God and in Ghana’s judicial system to “dispense justice fairly”.

Asked whether he didn’t think the ruling implied financial loss to the state since the acting Executive Secretaries appointed while he was still the substantive Executive Secretary were paid salaries, he responded that that should be determined by NIA itself. If they find anyone culpable they could take steps to recover the monies from them.

He, however, advised that no system should be permitted to maltreat hardworking public servants in a manner that would demotivate other good people for working for the state.