President Nana Akufo-Addo has said that the Finance Ministry has been able to save some GHS433million after removing 26,589 ghost names from government’s payroll.
In his speech on May Day in Accra, Mr Akufo-Addo said “government stands to save the country over GH¢433 million on this year’s budget alone by this exercise”.
He emphasised that the exercise was important because “if we are to pay workers well, we must do at least two things: get rid of ghost ones and enhance the efficiency of genuine ones”.
In relation to the two-day picketing by nurses at the Ministry of Health (MoH), Mr Akufo-Addo admitted that he was aware of the agitations by the unemployed nurses and midwives but assued: “My government is your government and we are listening to your concerns.”
He said government was “determined that, together, we will find sustainable solutions” because “Ghana needs all its trained manpower to be at work”.
Mr Akufo-Addo further stated that “the subject of nurses and teachers’ allowances featured a lot in the recent elections” where many questions were raised but “we promised to restore them and we have.”
By this, he assured the nurses that their concerns would be addressed.
Members of the Coalition of Unemployed Bonded Diploma Nurses agreed to go to their various homes after last week having spent two nights at the MoH to put pressure on government to effect their financial clearance to enable them get employed.
The midwives, psychiatric and general nurses picketed the MoH from Monday, 24 April, until Wednesday April 26. They said they had remained unemployed since completing their training two years ago.
The jobless nurses have given the ministry up to 5 May to resolve their concerns, failing which they will march to the presidency to present their grievances to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
