Checks by Citi Business News have revealed that most of the 26,000 public sector workers who were to miss their April salaries over failure to complete their SSNIT biometric registration have missed the new deadline.
The Ministry of Finance gave May 3 as the new deadline for the registration after negotiations with some of the affected workers.
The extension was met with assurances by some stake holders such as the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), pledging that all their members would comply with the new deadline.
However in an interview with Citi Business News, the Public Affairs Director of SSNIT, Eva Amegashie said the registration is still ongoing as the numbers were too high for completion on Wednesday.
“Registration has not ended the number is very big and government should have known the time added was small,” she said.
Reacting to a question whether there will be further extension; Madam Amegashie stated that the Accountant General and the Ministry of Finance are the bodies that can extend the period again.
“I don’t know whether the government will extend it because they fix the deadline so it is up to the workers to ask the Accountant General for a further extension of time,” she said.
Background
The workers’ plight follows a directive from the Finance Ministry for the Controller and Accountant General to halt the payment of salaries as the workers failed to enroll in the biometric registration by SSNIT.
The directive instructed all public servants on the Government of Ghana mechanized payroll system to register on the new SSNIT biometric system by the end of February 2017.
The deadline was however extended to March 31, 2017 by the Ministry of Finance.
The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) later threatened a protest if their concerns were not met after which government extended it to May 3, 2017.
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