Nine hundred and fifty-five national service personnel in the Greater Accra Region have not received their allowances for the past three months because they failed to sign onto e-Zwich, the electronic system which is now used to pay them.
Additionally, some of them had problems with their names or the e-Zwich numbers they presented to the National Service Secretariat (NSS) for them to access their allowances.
Error in names
The Director of Public Relations at the NSS, Mr Ambrose Entsiwah, who made this known, said more than 1,000 service personnel had problems with their names or e-Zwich numbers.
He explained that the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GHIPSS) had identified a number of errors in the e-Zwich numbers and names of national service personnel, a situation which had resulted in the delay in the payment of the allowances.
Explaining further, Mr Entsiwah said a list of all such errors had been forwarded to the regional and district secretariats of the scheme for verification and necessary correction.
He added that as part of measures to ensure accountability, the secretariat introduced the monthly report to be endorsed by departmental heads of various organisations which service persons had to present as proof of their punctuality at work.
According to data on the NSS website, 25,000 service persons registered for national service in the Greater Accra Region, out of which 24,100 reported for service.
Mr Entsiwah said more than 80 per cent of service personnel had been paid.
According to him, service persons who had their accurate details with the GHIPSS had been paid their January and February allowances, while that of March was almost ready to be disbursed. Appeal to service personnel
He urged service persons who had not been paid to verify their names and e-Zwich numbers from the regional and district offices to enable them to receive their allowances.
“Persons who have not been paid will receive their allowances according to structures that have been laid down to ensure that all anomalies are corrected,” he said.
He confirmed that there was enough money to pay service personnel, saying, “There is enough money to pay till September”.
Meanwhile, the affected service personnel have threatened to stage a demonstration in Accra to protest against the delay in the payment of their allowances.
