Government is concern about delayed salaries

Cape Coast, May 16, GNA - The Deputy Central Regional Minister, Mr H.Q. Jehu-Appiah, said on Monday government was concerned about delays in the payment of workers' salaries.

It is in this regard that it has instituted training programmes to upgrade the knowledge of accountants and personnel officers. Mr Jehu-Appiah was opening a two-day seminar on pensions and salary proceedings for heads of government departments, accountants and auditors from various parts of the Region.

It is being organised by the Controller and Accountant General's Department to keep stakeholders abreast with established procedures to facilitate the payment of salaries, pensions and gratuities.

The Deputy Regional Minister said the government was putting in every effort to make life comfortable for Ghanaian workers. It is, therefore, imperative for officials handling very sensitive aspects of workers' life to show a high level of competence and sensitivity in the performance of their duties.

Mr Jehu-Appiah noted that delays in the payment of salaries were due to the incompetence or laziness of schedule officers, as it happened recently in the case of some newly trained teachers. He said the decentralisation of processing of pensions and gratuities should have seen an end to the perennial problem of undue delays in the processing of documents, which brings hardships to beneficiaries.

"It has become increasingly apparent that some personnel officers have not become conversant with the introduction of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Data(IPPD).

"It is, therefore, imperative for you to be conversant with the new system and processing of payroll administration to avert any further delays in the payment of salaries, particularly of newly engaged workers," he told the participants.

Mr Ato Appiah, Deputy Director in charge of Auditing and Investigation at the Controller and Accountant General's Department, regretted that there were still delays in the initiation of applications for gratuity.

This, he said, was due to the fact that files on affected personnel reached his department less than three months to the day of their retirement. He, therefore, said all personal files at the headquarters of the ministries, departments and agencies should be forwarded to their respective district heads six months before any personnel is due to retire.

On complaints by some workers over the management of salaries and pensions, Mr Appiah said these were as a result of non-compliance by some MDAs with regulations on the filling and submission of input forms to the Controller and Accountant General's Department.