National Service Scheme To Pay outstanding Allowances

National Service Scheme To Pay outstanding Allowances To Service personnel This Week Credible information available to The General Telegraph indicates that all outstanding allowances due the 2013/14 national service personnel will be cleared this week. The July and August allowances for personnel were delayed following a special national head count embarked upon by the secretariat days after a massive corruption scandal rocked the institution. Our sources have confirmed that the necessary payment procedures were completed last week and payment vouchers have left the desk of the current Executive Director, Dr. Michael Kpessa-Whyte, for delivery to the districts and regions. �Outstanding allowances for all national service personnel will be paid into their respective bank accounts this week,� our source said. Further checks at the National Service Secretariat (NSS) and the Controller and Accountant General�s Department confirmed the completion of the payment process after the head count ended. The NSS embarked upon the head count exercise after the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) uncovered the rot at the secretariat. This subsequently led to the arrest of some top officials of the NSS, with the ex-Executive Director, Alhassan Imoro, being ordered to proceed on leave. He is currently standing trial for attempting to bribe the BNI officials and for stealing. In the wake of the scandal, Dr. Michael Kpessa-Whyte, an academician and lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, was appointed as the Executive Secretary. The General Telegraph can report also that an official statement directing all the affected service personnel to go to their respective districts and regions for their allowances will be issued this week. At the time of going to press, the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA) has issued a statement and commended all the 2013/14 service personnel for the patience they showed towards a good cause. A statement issued and signed by the National President of NASPA, Mr. Ekow Vincent Assafuah Jnr, says the Executive Committee has received assurance from the Acting Executive Director of the Scheme, Dr. Michael Kpessa-Whyte, that directives have been issued to regional directors of the scheme to ensure that the July and August 2014 allowances are paid without further delay. The General Telegraph has observed that new strategies are now being worked out at the headquarters including the establishment of a customer/client centre. Currently, a number of service persons are undergoing training to tackle customer relation issues with the aim of d-congesting the secretariat.