The National Service Scheme (NSS) has stated that recent economic difficulties are not the cause of the delay in payments of allowances to service personnel.
The Scheme receives funds from the government every quarter to be distributed to service personnel and has urged them to submit their monthly evaluation forms early to facilitate faster payment processing.
Some personnel have complained about the delayed payment of their allowances due to economic challenges.
However, Mr Ambruce Entsiwah Junior, the Acting Head of Corporate Affairs of NSS, assured in an interview with Citi FM that outstanding January allowances will be paid by the end of this week, with February and March payments to follow.
Mr Entsiwah also explained that the NSS has already paid November and December 2022 allowances and that the organization will ensure that personnel are paid whenever allowance approval is made, despite the current economic challenges.
“With regard to the delays in payment of allowances, we have paid November and December 2022 already. As I speak to you now, processes are being completed. By close of this week, we will pay them the January allowance. We have got releases for January,” he assured.
“Every Ghanaian accepts the fact that we have economic challenges. But these things should not necessarily affect us, because prior to this year we submitted our budget for the year, and we have had approval from Parliament. Based on the number of service personnel we were projecting to deploy. We know the numbers from the final year students’ list that we receive from the accredited institutions. So we submit this figure with our budget line. The releases are made to us on a quarterly basis.” he said.
He further noted that discussions are underway to increase the current national service allowance of GH¢559.
However, Mr Entsiwah emphasized that the approval of any increase in allowance was subject to permission from the Ministry of Finance and Cabinet, and that the NSS will only be able to implement an increase in allowance if it was affordable for the state.
“There have been very positive discussions on this matter, in fact, the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) leadership has raised this matter on several occasions,” he said.
“Our executive director has also on a number of occasions discussed this matter in detail with other stakeholders. I’m aware that the matter has even gone before the board and is generally being discussed for approval.
“The board cannot give the approval without the explicit permission and approval from the ministry of finance, that is the level the discussion has reached. It’s our hope that we will get approval from the ministry. When the ministry also gets the approval from cabinet we will be able to implement what the state can afford to pay”.