Return our gadgets before we pay you – GSS to unpaid enumerators
The Head of the Resource and Data Centre of the Ghana Statistical Service has revealed that 80 per cent of the enumerators engaged for the just-ended 2021 Population and Housing Census have been paid their allowances in full and the remaining 20 per cent will receive theirs as soon as they returned all the gadgets given to them for the exercise.
Head of Resources and Data Centre (RDC) of the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS), Mr Johnson Owusu Kagya in an interview said that the contract between the GSS and the enumerators stated that payment would be done upon return of all the tools in possession of the census officials.
“Not all of them have been paid.“Before the exercise, we went into contract and the contract said we will begin paying 30 per cent of the contract sum and when you are done, meaning you have sent the data to us and you have returned all our items to us, and so, when you are done with it then we clear you and that is when we will pay you the remaining 70 per cent.
“As at last week, we had paid about 80 per cent of the enumerators in full. We are left with the 20 per cent and it has to do with being sure that we don’t okay the money into the wrong people and also getting our returnable items.
“There could be instances where people will tell you if you don’t pay me I will not give you your tablet but it is the other way round, we should get the tablet first before payment is done.
“What if we give you the money and you also don’t bring the items?” he asked.
Most enumerators are complaining of not being paid though they have submitted the gadgets and have been cleared. In an interview with one of the enumerators in the Ledzekuku municipality, he complained that upon submitting their gadgets for over a month now yet haven’t been paid.
“I submitted everything that was given to me for the exercise. I have been cleared in my district for a month and days now but I still haven’t received my allowance. Most of the Enumerators in the Ledzekuku municipality haven’t been paid. The DCO said unless everyone in the district has been cleared before we receive the remaining allowance meanwhile, you said we will be paid when we submit every gadget and been cleared individually, so what excuse are they giving us now?” he wondered.
The Government Statistician Professor Samuel Kobina Annim released the provisional data for the census on Wednesday, September 22, 2021, at the GNAT Hall in Accra where he stated that Ghana’s population currently is 30.8 million. Out of that, there are about 400,000 females than males and Greater Accra Region has marginally moved ahead of Ashanti Region as the most populous region in the country with a difference of about 13,000 persons.
By: George Addo | Join our Telegram Channel
