A private legal practitioner Mr Kwame Jantuah has questioned the rationale behind the payment of neutrality allowance to enable members of the Civil and Local Government Staff Association of Ghana (CLOGSAG) stay away from partisan politics.
He stated that the constitution prevents them from engaging in partisan politics therefore, they have to comply without being paid any compensation.
Speaking on the New Day show on TV3 Friday April 22, Mr Jantuah told CLOGSAG that the only option is to resign if they want to engage in partisan politics.
Members of CLOGSAG began an indefinite strike on Thursday, April 21 over this development.
CLOGSAG said it was noted that payment of the Neutrality Allowance they demanded had not been effected as agreed in spite of official reminders and follow ups to the Ministry of Finance.
Reacting to this, Mr Jantuah said “There is a systemic problem that needs to be sorted out, conditions of service. That is what government should be looking at. CLOGSAG do not have conditions of service.
“Neutrality allowance is given to them so they don’t get into politics, what does the constitution say? The constitution indicates that if you are a public servant, you are not allowed to engage in partisan politics, it has been reinforced by the Supreme Court. So, if I work for the civil service and I want to go into politics, what do I do? This gentleman who was a police officer who is now in Parliament, did he not resign? So what are we talking about?
“If some of think that you want to charge e-levy and you won’t use it judiciously, these are some of the things. How can you say that because you don’t want civil servant to go into politics, you are paying them compensations.
“The other thing CLOGSAG hasn’t been able to do for us which I pray they do, they say it is more than neutrality allowance, there are other things involved, they should give us the proposal or the list to go through to see whether that is right or that isn’t right.”
Source: 3news.com|Ghana