Gov't Releases Money for Workers' Car Allowance

Government has released an amount of ?386.6 million to the tenregional coordinating councils for the payment of car allowances to deserving officers in the district assemblies for the first and second quarter of this year.

The beneficiary officers are those in the administrative, town planning and executive grades, who have been denied their due since the introduction of the Ghana universal salary structure, popularly called 'PriceWater House'.

Mr. Adjei Darko, minister of Local Government and Rural Development, told Parliament yesterday when he answered questions from the member for Ahafo Ano, Kwame Frimpong, that the issue of payment of the maintenance allowances to the staff of the assemblies were decoupled from the government machinery cost centre and transferred to the decentralization implementation cost center of the ministry.

He explained that the transfer did not go with other allowances of the staff thus making payment to the district level staff impossible since 2000.

"When the issue was taken up with the Ministry of Finance last year, it requested that the particulars of all staff, including particulars of means of transport of all staff who are entitled to payment of allowances be provided, he further explained, "in spite of several reminders sent to the minister for the data, the information was not forthcoming."

That, the minister said, amounted to provision not being made for maintenance allowance in the ministry's budget estimates for the 2001 and 2002 fiscal years.

He regretted that out of the 110 district assemblies, only 61 responded to a circular issued in August 2002 demanding details of staff with vehicles but assumed that provision had now been made for the allowances to be paid this year.

To another question, which stood in the name of the member for Odododiodoo, Reginald Ayi-Bonte, the minister said as part of efforts to strengthen the institutional capacities of the metropolitan assemblies, his ministry had embarked upon an exercise to restructure the sub-metropolitan district councils of all the three metropolitan assemblies in the country.

Mr. Darko said the existing six sub-metropolitan district assemblies in Accra have been reorganized into 13 new sub-metropolitan assemblies to ensure effective local administration.

He said Cabinet had already approved the proposal and a draft Legislative Instrument (LI 1722) had been placed before Parliament for consideration.

According to the minister, all the newly created sub-metropolitan district councils will be inaugurated simultaneously throughout the country after the parliamentary approval.