NYEP Health Workers Not Paid

Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Saturday September 24, 2011.
About 200 Health Extension Workers engaged under the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) are up in arms with the authorities after they claimed they have not received salaries for the past 10 months.

However, Ibrahim Murtala Mohammed, a deputy Coordinator of National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) in charge of communications has told Daily Guide that the delay was as a result of a technical hitch but assured that the salaries are ready and would be paid on Monday.
Yesterday, about 40 of the workers who operate in health facilities in the Accra Metropolis stormed the NYEP headquarters near the Ridge Hospital to press home their demand for salaries but were turned away.

According their leaders - who do not want to be named for fear of victimization - they have never received salaries since they started full work in December 2010 but nobody seems to care about their condition of service.

“When we got to the premises we requested to see the accountant to know the reasons why we have not been paid but we were not allowed to see him.”

“They asked us to rather put down our names and account numbers;” adding “writing down our particulars has become a common thing but we always do not hear from them,” one of the leaders claimed.

They alleged that the coordinators had employed people through the back-door who were not working but were withdrawing salaries and that may have accounted for the NYEP’s inability to pay them

They said when they were engaged their salaries were pegged at GH¢ 120.

Explaining the circumstances leading to the delay, Murtala Mohammed told Daily Guide that “when a person is given an appointment letter, the person reports to where he or she has been sent and would have received letter of acceptance.”

He said having received the letter of acceptance; the District Coordinator will then give him or her letter of introduction to the bank to open an account and usually we do it at ADB and where there is no ADB we allow them to open their accounts in community banks there.”

He said having opened the account the beneficiary is expected to assume work and the head of the institution where the beneficiary is posted to would write to the headquarters through the District Coordinator to conclude that indeed the person is working.

Murtala Mohammed said after the processes had been completed the headquarters would then certify that beneficiary should then start collecting his or her salary.

He said there are several reasons why some of the beneficiaries might not have received their salaries saying “some of the beneficiaries might not have reported for work in order to go through the processes to qualify for salary.

He said some of the beneficiaries had gone through all the processes but their District Coordinators delayed in sending their information to the headquarters for them to sanction the process.

“We have told the coordinators that even if they have three people they should send the information to us. They should not wait for to get the full list before they send them to us.”

“I can tell you that we have sent the money to the ADB. We were expecting that the bank would have credited the accounts of the beneficiaries but that has not been done because once they credit the accounts the bank would send them text messages.”

He said they have followed up to the bank and the bank has assured that all the accounts would be credited on Monday saying “it is certain that from Monday they will enjoy their money.”