2021 Population and Housing Census In Limbo As Potential Field Officers Demand Upward Adjustment Of Remunerations

The Greater Accra Regional Supervisors and enumerators for the 2021 population and housing census want a review of the remuneration for the work that is about to take off.

Data collection officers who were undergoing an eleven-day training program which commenced on Tuesday, June 1 and ended June 11, 2021, were initially reportedly promised Ghc550 for transportation at the end of the training but the amount was reduced to Ghc440 and subsequently Ghc330.

The officers indicated that although they are happy and appreciate the fact that they will be working with Ghana Statistical Service, they will be glad if their remuneration is reviewed upward .

But according the Government Statistician Prof. Samuel Annim said, “on the side of GSS, we will be providing a transport allowance of GH₵330. The first tranche of 30% will be paid after the first week of training. The second tranche of 40% will be paid in the second week of training and the last tranche will be paid three days after the start of the listing.”

“These amounts will be paid in tranches and the details are provided in the contracts. All payments will be done via G-Money and so all trainees should ensure they are registered on G-Money and provide the correct telephone number for payment.”

However, the enumerators and supervisors are unhappy over the variations creating suspicion among them that they are being short-changed by some individuals in charge of the training and therefore, threatening to boycott the training and subsequently withdraw from the entire exercise.

However the issue is being blamed on miscommunication. An official of GSS who spoke on the condition of anonymity noted, “their T&T in contention now, we promised to give them Ghc500 but later on they’ve heard that we slashed it to Ghc440 then now going down to Ghc330 so because of those things they are not happy. When I went there I met the facilitators, we discussed the issues, so I explained to the facilitators that this is the situation.”

He told the media “the first thing I did was that during the opening address, the address was sent from Accra from the Headquarters which was read to them, in that opening address, it was stated that they will pay them G440 for ten days. So where they got that Ghc50 (per day) from I don’t know. It was that document that the Ghc440 was quoted. But later, we had another communique that the Ghc440 was a mistake so it is now going to be Ghc30 for their T&T per day.”

This year’s census is the first digital Population and Housing Census in Ghana.
Field Officers are therefore being trained to master the contents of the manual and the use of the tablets in order to be successful.

A real-time data collection and real-time data quality monitoring mechanisms to scrutinize the data daily have been synchronized for error identification and correction.

According to the GSS, the monitoring is an additional layer of supervision
added to enhance the accuracy of the data collected.

The technology will also offer Management an opportunity to monitor the movement of enumerators and supervisors, timing, and origin of interacting with servers.

The 2021 Population and Housing Census (PHC) is estimated to cost the country GHS 521 million.

Out of this amount, the government has raised and disbursed GHS 467 million for the start of the exercise.
The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) says the 2021 census will begin across the country from Sunday, June 13 with Community Entry and sensitization on the Sunday. Listing of structures follows on 14th June and the enumeration will kick-start on 27th June (Census night). The exercise will run till July 11, 2021.

By: Stella Annan |myactiveonline.com

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