MMDAs tasked to support Payroll Clinics

Woyongo receiving pleasantries from participants 

                     

All the 170 Municipal and District Assemblies nationwide have been asked to assist in providing logistical support to all the payroll clinics established in their respective areas of jurisdiction. This will help in the efficient quality delivery of service as payroll desk officers recruited under the said clinics have been tasked with the responsibility of receiving and resolving complaints from employees and pensioners on daily basis. The payroll officers under the leadership of the District Finance Officers will have an additional task of organizing regular salaries and pension clinics  at different locations in their respective districts, where employees and pensioners could meet with said officers and lodge their complains for redress. The Deputy Controller and Accountant General, Mr. Kwesi Kofe who made the call declared plans by his outfit to partner the MMDAs to assist in executing the program and appealed for cooperation from the MMDAs. Mr. Kofe was speaking at a two-day Educational Forum on the Mechanized Payroll for Public and Civil Servants at Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital. The forum which was highly attended by a section of the public including staff and heads of the various decentralized departments sought to remind both salaried workers and departments of their responsibility of ensuring that the mechanized payroll reports are thoroughly scrutinized to eliminate all irregularities.  The forum Mr Kofe narrated, was necessary as a result of numerous complaints the department receives from employees concerning their salaries. It was moreover necessary to the effect that most salaried workers do not know where to seek relevant solutions to their grievances with respect to their salaries. This, he pointed out resulted in the delays in resolving the challenges associated with salaries. According to him the forum was to provide appropriate response to complaints and promised that such public interactions will not mark the end of the department’s effort but rather will continue in the ensuing years.  He said such fora have already taken place in almost all the regions. Mr Kofe was however hopeful that with the support and assistance from public servants, his outfit was poised to ensuring quality service devoid of practices that tend to mar the operations of the department, citing the existence of ghost names on government’s payroll. The Upper East Regional Minister, Mark Woyongo also added his voice on the issue of ghost names and charged authorities concerned to help wipe out such names since chunk of government’s revenue goes into the payment of salaries for public sector workers. He also challenged the Controller and Accountants General Department (CAGD) to decentralized aspects of their activities to prevent workers traveling long distances to Accra to sort out issues relating to their salaries. During the open forum, participants laid before the department challenges faced by workers with regards to the single spine pay policy and called on the department to help rectify all anomalies to prevent further complains from workers. Topics discussed at the forum include managing the mechanized payroll, inputs and reporting, payroll deductions and Single Spine Salary Structure among other specific payroll issues.

GBC                                                END                                                        IA/