Opinions of Tuesday, 14 April 2015

Columnist: Citizens Awake Forum

Government must furnish us with details of the 10% voluntary pay cut

Government must furnish us with details of the 10% voluntary pay cut as at march 2015.

Citizens Awake Forum is a pro democracy civil society organization which upholds the values of Integrity and Accountability.

As a result, CAF have come to set the records straight in regard to the 10% voluntary pay cut of the President and his appointees’ vis-à-vis the amount of monies which has been accrued as at 31st March 2015.

Undoubtedly, the leadership of CITIZENS AWAKE FORUM has been monitoring the activities of the government and thus, CAF can confidently conclude that the 10% voluntary pay cut which is meant to support CHIPS compounds in the rural communities across the country is a complete hoax.

Frankly, the idea behind the 10% voluntary pay cut by the executives was just brilliant but our search on the grounds indicates that there is no special fund anywhere which has been set aside for such purposes as was alleged by the Finance Minister.

As a matter of fact, it’s been two years down the line and the Accountant General has not done any deductions whatsoever ever since the President made such declaration or could it be one of the President’s empty promises?

CAF would wish to ask government whether the 10% pay cut was subjected to any time interval. For instance, was the President referring to his pay cut for the month that he made that declaration? Certainly, Ghanaians wants to know the details of that Special Fund Account.

Just a month ago, our Monitoring and Evaluation team embarked on a tour across the country to inquest whether the government is using the 10 % pay cut to provide health care for people in the rural communities.

To our dismay, upon visiting most of the communities nationwide, it was discovered that there is nothing on the grounds to show that indeed government is putting up CHIPS compound except the ones which were built by the previous governments.

Looking at the fat salaries that the citizenry pays the president and his appointees, the 10% pay cut of their salaries should be more than enough to see many of these CHIPS compound in our rural communities.

As a group that believes in Accountability, CAF, the official mouthpiece of the citizenry is requesting the government to furnish us with details of the 10% voluntary pay cut as at march 2015.

Long live Ghana!

Long live CAF!

And God bless us all!

Ernest Kojo Smith, the Executive Director of CAF (0240179530) Ali Musah Danjumah, (Operations) Daniel Boateng (Executive Member) Rubin Kwame Ayisi (Executive Member)

Motto: To Uphold Integrity and Accountability, the bedrock of a Nation’s Development©