The Civil Society picks interest in the fact that the Chairman of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Dr. James Klutse Avedzi has threatened that any District, Municipal, or Metropolitan Assembly which pays casual workers below the national minimum wage will be prosecuted.
Addressing the media in Northern Regional zonal public hearings on the 2022 Auditor-General’s report in Tamale, Dr. Avedzi described the situation whereby casual workers are paid peanuts with some Assemblies paying GH¢100 to GH¢150 per month – something that is below the legal minimum wage of approximately GH¢18.15. He described these wages as intolerable and underlined that all the Assemblies should abide by the minimum wages as prescribed.
According to Dr. Avedzi, this is calculated by multiplying the current minimum wage with the average working days in a month and should not be less than 400GH¢. He recommended that any Assembly found wanting in this regard should be made to pay the price and that legal proceedings may be instituted against those concerned.
Besides the problem of low wages, Dr. Avedzi mentioned other perennial problems affecting the Assemblies, such as emoluments received without work, unexplained revenue, and misuse of DACF but it was acknowledged that there were some incremental changes, particularly with regard to procurement issues, which had been cited in the past as a problem. He stated that some of them had already been reported to the Attorney-General for prosecution.
At the PAC hearing, District Assemblies attributed overspending to the effects of security and natural disasters.
Dr Avedzi, given this, called for the national security budget to take on those costs instead of the DACF, which was intended for development purposes.
He said this would enable Assemblies to utilize the DACF for its intended purpose.
SOURCE: https://dew360.net
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