Govt Given Ultimatum

The leadership of the Civil Servants Association has called on government to take steps to restore the CAP 30 pension scheme, without further delay, instead of resorting to promises that it was working towards it. The association says if nothing concrete is done by the end of January next year, its national executive council would meet to take a decisive stance on the issue.

This was the outcome of a National Executive Council meeting held at Cape Coast in the Central Region. The conference discussed issues concerning the Association, especially those pertaining to the restoration of CAP 30, disparities in the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS), and the need for a civil service college.

Central Regional Minister, Isaac Edumadze told the Association that the government was working towards the restoration of the pension scheme.

But the leadership of the Association claimed the government "was only throwing dust into their eyes", because it was yet to set up any forum to facilitate a dialogue with the Association as to the type of pension scheme its members could opt for”.

They said the service was led to believe that the CAP 30, was to be replaced by the SSNIT pension scheme, but later, realised to their dismay that other services such as the police and audit services, were still enjoying it.

The Association expressed further dismay about what they described as gross disparities in the salaries of the civil service and other public service institutions, in spite of the institution of the Ghana Universal Salary Structure (GUSS), and accused the government of "resorting to a piecemeal approach to salary administration and picking out some institutions for higher salaries".

It said the situation had resulted in the civil service lagging behind other workers with regards to salary structures. They also expressed concern about the lack of a training college for the service, to enable civil servants to upgrade themselves. The association regretted that GIMPA, which was initially set up to train civil servants had become an expensive commercial entity, charging high fees for its training programmes.