The National Service Scheme (NSS) and the Member of Parliament (MP) for Obuasi West, Kwaku Kwarteng, are in a tango over GH¢40 that service personnel have been asked to pay for registration and posting.
The MP wrote to the NSS Director, copied to the NSS Board, expressing disgust at the situation, saying that “it is obvious that this charge is just wrong.”
In reaction, the NSS explained that payment for computerised registration and deployment (posting) of National Service Personnel was introduced in 2005 and has been in existence since. It is, therefore, not a new policy.
A statement issued and signed by acting Executive Director of NSS, Dr Michael Whyte Kpessa, said the amount involved, which was paid by serving and previous National Service personnel, remains the same.
He gave the breakdown of the GH¢40 as GH¢10 for NSS ID card, another GH¢10 for National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) dues and GH¢20 for computerised registration per person.
He explained that in the past while National Service personnel posted to private sector user agencies paid the full GH¢40 upfront at the point of picking their appointment letters while those posted to public institutions had theirs paid through deductions from their allowances.
“Following approval from the NSS Board, the management of NSS announced that starting with the 2015/2016 service year, all prospective National Service personnel who intend to avail themselves to the computerised registration will be required to make this payment at the point of enrolment,” he said.
Dr Whyte Kpessa noted that the online registration was to eliminate all forms of cash transactions to improve the quality of service rendered by NSS to National Service personnel by ensuring that their NSS ID cards and other relevant items are ready on time and to ensure that all NSS personnel, whether posted to private or public sectors, are treated equally and fairly as far as their obligation to the scheme and the services rendered to them are concerned.
Additionally, he said it was to eliminate the phenomenon of multiple deductions suffered by some NSS personnel, especially in cases where deployment of service personnel are amended for one reason or the other, and to eliminate situations where the scheme is forced to pay its IT service providers the cost associated with registration and deployment of personnel who fail to take up their postings.
Dr Whyte Kpessa stated further that the payment for registration applies only to prospective NSS personnel who elect to use the convenience of the computerised registration approach by logging on to www.nss.gov.gh.
According to him, prospective NSS personnel who are unable to avail themselves to the computerised registration process are encouraged to pick up free Manual Enrolment Forms from the Deployment Unit at the National Service Scheme Head Office in Accra or download a copy from www.nss.gov.gh and return the completed form to the Head Office.
For directions to the NSS Head Office, prospective service personnel are advised to call 0302-772-714.
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