Some Ministers Have Also Not Been Paid – Mahama

The President says reforms at the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) is responsible for the delay in the payment of remunerations of some public sector workers.

He is urging public sector workers to exercise some patience because the reforms have affected other category of public office holders such as some of his ministers.

“As I speak there are some ministers who have not paid because they have to go through the checks to make sure that when they are imputed into the payroll, they really do exist,” he told Uniiq FM Tuesday.

Some 91 junior doctors had to picket at the CAGD last month before they were paid for the first time since joining the public service 11 months ago.

On Monday, about 30 workers of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) also picketed at the Department demanding their salaries.

The least affected employee has not been paid for 26 months, one lady revealed. They have been promised they will receive their salary arrears next month.

The use of strikes to demand an entitlement is entrenching public perception that industrial action is the only language government understands.

“It is not true…it is a wrong perception and I think it is unfortunate,” President Mahama dismissed.

He went on to explain that CAGD is implementing reforms to rid the payroll of ghost names which have been identified as a huge drain on the public purse.

“The Accountant-General has put in a system that makes you not able to be paid if you don’t have a social security number because we are synchronizing the payroll with the Social Security system,” he told the nation on International Youth Day Tuesday.

He said employees without social security numbers now have to go to SSNIT to obtain a social security number before proceeding to the Accountant-General’s Department to complete biometric registration.

All this is to ensure the integrity of the public payroll system, he explained, assuring that when the process of payroll reforms is completed, strikes fuelled by delays in the payment of salaries and allowance will be over.