The Finance Ministry will soon come out with a new date for the implementation of the ezwich payment system for over 400,000 public sector workers, Employment and Labour Minister, Haruna Iddrisu has said.
This follows government’s decision to suspend the implementation of the electronic payment platform until all grievances with stakeholders are resolved.
Government in a bid to rid the system of payroll fraud introduced the payment plan, a decision which led to a directive to all public servants to secure e-zwich cards by May 31, 2016 or risk losing their salaries.
According to Mr Iddrisu, his outfit will engage all stakeholders to find lasting solutions over their grievances regarding the electronic payment of wages and salaries, adding, government quest to clean ghost names from the public sector payroll is on course.
“The policy principle to clean the payroll still remains intact. Government is committed to removing all unwarranted and ghost names from the payroll.”
12 labour unions including the Civil and Local Government Staff Association (CLOGSAG ) which form a forum last week protested vehemently against the new directive, leading to the suspension of the electronic payment system by the Finance and Labour Ministries pending resolutions of all complaints.
At the meeting, the Forum said no worker would have his name removed from the payroll for failing to submit an e-zwich number and particulars to the Controller and Accountant General Department as directed by the Finance Minister, Seth Terkper.
President of the Forum, Dr. Isaac Bampoe Addo, said the meeting concluded that effective May 31, 2016, every worker of the public service will continue to receive his or her entire salary through the traditional banking system as has been the case all this while, whether they have registered with e-zwich or not.
But the Labour Minister said further consultations will be done to ensure that all stakeholders are satisfied, explaining that the ezwich payment system is in the best interest of all Ghanaians.
The payment of allowances of national service personnel’s via ezwich system has helped to reduce payroll fraud.
As a result it has saved the nation some millions of Ghana cedis following the financial scandal that rocked the National Service Secretariat in 2014.
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