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National Service (NS) has become an important component of our national life and mandatory for all graduates of tertiary institutions hence the expected unimaginable backlash received by Hon. Otiko Adiza Djaba (Minister for Gender and social protection) from all right thinking Ghanaians when during her vetting it was palpably realised that she dodged NS, the National Service secretariat had to cowardly give her a waiver letter to facilitate her approval by parliament.
National Service Personnel are usually given a token to aid their survival, this was around GHC350 until last year when government increased it to GHC559 (though it was suspended and later fully implemented) which in my candid opinion is too small for upcoming youth considering the fact that the amount is less than GHC20 per day, this amount however small brings relief to the personnel and remove a huge burden from parents/guardians of these vulnerable personnel. However there is a huge untold story about NS that the public is unaware of.
The NS has four categories;
1) Subvented category - they are fresh graduates who are absorbed into various government agencies and are paid the amount quoted above.
2) Non-Subvented category - They are in the same group as category one but they are posted to private entities and are paid the above amount or more, not by the (NSS) government but rather by the private entities (user agencies), the user agencies further pay 20% of the amount quoted above to the NS secretariat.
3) Post basics categories - They are the category of personnel who went to school through study leave with pay, they are posted back to their stations, NSS doesn’t pay them, they take their usual and regular salary and rather pay 10% of GHC559 to NSS.
4) MoH sponsored category - These categories of NS personnel comprises nurses and other health trainees from MoH training institution, they take either rotation/internship allowance, this allowance is paid by MoH and not NSS, it is also slightly higher than the regular figure quoted above.
The sad news is that since the commencement of the service this year category 2 and 3 are effectively been sorted out, the government has communicated that plans are far advanced to sorting category 1personnel out, at least they fill forms every 15th in anticipation of their NS allowance , I remember very well that the secretariat clearly communicated in August this year on this website and the traditional media that a little over 91,000 personnel have been deployed (https://nss.gov.gh/getconnected/press-release/194-nss-posts-over-91-000-service-personnel-for-2017-2018) (category 1 to 4), however just last week we heard through news portals that the Deputy Executive Director of NS (Henry Nana Boakye) stating that they have deployed over 100,000 personnel which they are preparing to pay (https://mobile.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Government-releases-funds-for-payment-of-NSS-allowances-592076) (Note that out of the 4 categories NSS pays only Category 1, and make money from category 2 and 3)
The most depressing news is that the personnel in category 4 have been neglected and left to their unpleasant fate, they absolutely have no news about how they are going to be paid, and what the process leading to their payment even looks like, I understand when some aggrieved personnel made some follow ups to the Ministry of Health (MoH) they were given a monstrous excuse that MoH is waiting for financial clearance from Ministry of Finance (MoF). How can someone start service and over two months clearance has not been secured rather talking about commence of the processes, does the Ministry of Health actually plan? if they do they should have known right from day one that these cadres of health trainees would be commencing their NS in September. It takes an average of 3 months to process salary after IPPD form has been filled and submitted to controller and accountant general department (CAGD), so now that clearance is not granted and timeline has not been given what happens to the psyche of these personnel.
SHS students resumed around 12th September, Health trainees also resumed around this same time yet have been cleared financially and sorted out and these hardworking personnel of 4 categories who resumed work on 1st September don't even know their fate with regards to payment of their legitimate allowance, is this not a clear issue of placement government priorities?
In conclusion I urge the NS secretariat to expedite action on the payment of the allowance for the category 1 personnel and be genuine with Ghanaians on the figures and not nflate it and create a non-existent impression as if they are responsible for paying all NS personnel when indeed it just one category out of 4 categories. The MoH and MoF should quicken the process with the speed of light as they did for the health trainees allowance though they resumed school very late compared to the Service personnel; the neglect is causing needless frustrations and avoidable mental agony to these fine brains, after all the money would be paid and must be paid so why the unnecessary delay and creation of unhealthy pandemonium?
Shaibu Issifu
(A Health Intern)
0548437494