No Ghana Card, No Salary: Workers to drag CAGD to Court

The Ghana Federation of Labour (GFL), the umbrella body of some workers in Ghana, has served notice that it will test the authority of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department in tying the salaries of public sector workers to the Ghana card.

“We are going to test the authority of the Controller on the use of the Ghana Card as the sole form of identity for the payment of salaries in court”, General Secretary Abraham Koomson said, last week.

The GFL wondered why the CAGD is rather not using the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) card of workers for that purpose.

Mr Koomson said the federation is considering holding discussions with the leadership of some other public sector workers to test the authority of the Controller as far as the directive is concerned.

“For the Controller to say it will not pay the salaries of workers who do not have Ghana card as a form of identity on their personal data is absurd”, Mr Koomson stressed.

“As a federation, we will not sit down for our members to be mistreated by the Controller”, he warned.

He urged the Controller to come clean on the directive before things get out of hand.

Mr Koomson contended that some workers have registered for the Ghana card since last year but are yet to receive it from the National Identification Authority (NIA).

“So why the hurry for the Controller to tie the payment of salaries of workers to the acquisition of the Ghana card?” he queried.

He said it was high time the government took steps to ensure that all salary workers are registered before such fiats were issued.

“If this action is targeted at people who are not working to stop receiving salaries, then it is good but for workers who have been validated to have worked, it’s problematic”, he observed in an interview with Neat FM.

Effective 1 December 2021, public sector workers without a Ghana card will not be paid, a statement from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department has said.

Such workers have been given up the enforcement date to acquire the Ghana card if they do not have one already.

“Effective December 1, workers on the government of Ghana Payroll who have not registered with the NIA will not be paid,” the statement said.

The CAGD said it is working with the National Identification Authority to harmonise the database of public sector workers so as to “facilitate biometric and unique identification of all workers on the government payroll.”

The directive, the CAGD noted, is part of the government’s “efforts to deliver a speedy, secured and verified payroll service to government employees and pensioners while reducing the risk of undeserving payment or claims.”

“By this notice, all existing and prospective government workers are to ensure they are registered with the NIA and obtain their identity numbers,” the statement added.