Larry Bimi, NCCE Chairman
There is a silent stand-off between staff of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) and their directors, Today’s searchlight has spotted.
At the centre of the silent war, as the paper discovered, is an allegation that some of the commission’s directors take fractions of the workers’ salaries at the end of every month, with some of the affected parties insisting that the practice has been festering for the past decade.
Consequently, this has infuriated the workers many of whom have threatened to take legal action and expose those directors involved in the nefarious practice.
Some of the workers, who spoke to Today on condition of anonymity, disclosed that what has necessitated the obvious fraud is the fact that the NCCE was yet to regularize its payroll system to synchronize with that of other public sector workers who are paid by the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department.
“I am telling you today that all workers of the NCCE including the directors themselves are not on the payroll of the Controller and Accountant-General.
…The directors know what they have been doing with our salaries so they don’t even support our suggestions and ideas to push for payment of salaries by the Accountant-General.
These people deliberately delay the payment of our salaries and use it for their business. What is annoying about the whole situation is the many chain of deductions they make when you are paid.
They deduct irrelevant and insignificant things from our already meagre salaries and use it for their selfish and greedy interest”, an anonymous official at the NCCE told Today.
The workers explained that because they receive their salaries and allowances from the Finance and Account Department of the Commission, some of their directors have created a network, which allows them to profit by taking their percentage on salaries of the workers.
What has made matters worse, according to the aggrieved workers, is that despite the numerous concerns raised on the matter, management has shown little or no interest in it.
As a result of this, the workers contend that the action of the directors involved is a deliberate attempt by the top notch of the Commission to profit from their allowances and salaries.
The workers further hinted that because of the fact that their directors have direct access to their budgetary allocated funds, they deliberately delay the payment of salaries and make unnecessary deductions leaving them with something small to take home.
According to them, among the deductions made on their salaries include welfare dues, NCCE Donewell Provident contributions which are basically compulsory for all the over 1,500 NCCE staff nationwide.
“But our problem with all these deductions is that we do not see what benefit we derive from such deductions. Many of our colleague workers who are on retirement have not been given any money from the welfare fund, which has the primary objective of cushioning workers during their retirement period”, another worker furiously indicated.
The workers contended that they hardly see such deductions being used judiciously for the purposes for which they are taken.
“Over the past years we have been pushing for the payment of workers’ salaries through the accountant-general but some of our directors who think their source of wealth would be short lived when this is done, do not in any way support us.
…They know why they are doing this because when the accountant-general steps in, monies and salaries would not come to them directly for them to misuse. That is the main reason for the growing corruption at the commission”, another anonymous official lamented.
“Our salaries are meagre and we are even crying for pay increment only to have it slashed every month by our bosses.
…My brother the earlier the president turns his eyes on NCCE; the better it will be for Ghana because we have some kind of financial vampires here with big stomachs who must be thrown out of the commission”, another anonymous staff pointed out.
Efforts to get the reaction of Mr Larry Bimi, NCCE Chairman, to comment on the allegation proved abortive as several calls to his cell phone went unanswered.
STORY: WILLIAM BEEKO
