NASPA called for review of their conditions

Koforidua, April 18, GNA- The National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) in the New Juaben Municipality have called on the government to review conditions of service, especially accommodation for service persons.

They suggested to the government to, as a matter of urgency, start a pilot project of providing some form of hostel in selected regions and districts to mitigate the plight of service persons posted to areas where they were not provided with accommodation.

The president of the municipal branch of the NASPA, Frank Annoh-Dompreh, who made the call at a press conference on Saturday at Koforidua, noted that 90 per cent of personnel posted to their various stations bear the cost of renting their accommodation.

He observed that most personnel had not been at post in the municipality because of lack of accommodation and due to the high rent deposits being demanded by landlords and asked that service persons be exempted from paying rent advance.

Mr Annoh-Dompreh mentioned, among others, the payment of service allowances and posting of service persons as areas that needed to be critically examined by the National Service Secretariat to boost the image of the scheme "so that national service would be seen as a patriotic service to the nation other than punishment".

He explained that most of the service persons pay rent as well as utility bills and feed themselves "so the delay in the release of the allowances is unacceptable" and wondered why government did not accord the same promptness accorded to salaries of workers to Service Personnel's allowances to obtain maximum benefit of their labour.

The president, however, commended the government for the 75 per cent increase in their allowance and hoped the increment would reflect a realistic income to motivate service persons all over the country.

He also appealed to political parties to make maximum use of the inter-party advisory committees to forestall violence in the coming elections while party executives and members should eschew inflammatory and derogatory language to ensure peaceful elections.