Chief of Staff threatens to sack Flagstaff House workers

Following the exposé by THE CRYSTAL CLEAR LENS that workers at the Seat of Government, the Flagstaff House, had not been paid since 2012 and that a weird strike was about to hit the Presidency in its Wednesday's edition, the Ghana's Chief of Staff and President John Mahama's Lieutenant, Mr. Prosper Bani, has worsened the anger of the workers.

Pieces of credible information picked up by our scout at the presidency from some of the workers are that the Chief of Staff has gone mad over the story and is accusing the workers of leaking such sensitive information to the paper to further cause damage to the already poor image of the government.

Mr Prosper Bani, according to them, further threatened to sack some of them if they dare go on with the intended strike to demand for their unpaid accumulated monies, though the President has not yet return from his visit to United Kingdom.

This one-man-show decision of the Chief of Staff is said to have rather aggravated the anger of the majority of the workers presidential staffers, causing a lot of unhealthy tension at the highest office of the nation.

"He is on rampage accusing some of our colleagues of leaking the information to the paper and has vowed to sack any worker at the Presidency who dare go on the intended strike but we don't really care, all we want is our money or we join the numerous workers to demand for what is rightfully ours", one of the angered workers told this paper yesterday.

They are wondering why Mr Bani has chosen such a path of slippery to resolve an issue as grave as theirs and said they were waiting for the president to return and addressed their grievances or welcome the strike soon.

Our scout at the presidency still indicated that majority of the agitating presidential staffers and workers are still bent on letting the President John Mahama come face-to-face with their strike, first of its kind in the history of Ghana to press home what they described as their legitimate demands.

They still insisted that they have not received any salary since February 2012 and that they have been keeping calm over the issue because they didn't want to cause any embarrassment to the government which they are serving whole-heartedly.

The noted that since 2012 they have been feeding their families and taking care of themselves through their own means and wondered if the President who employed them really want them to give their best without being paid.

It would be recalled that in 2012 salaries and emoluments for the Executive arm of government which President John Dramani Mahama asked Parliament the Professor Ewurama Committee which pegged his monthly salary at Ghc120,000.00 while his Vice at Ghc10,500.00.

Subsequently, documents signed by the former Finance Minister, Dr.Kwabena Duffour stated that Political Appointees (presidential staffers) who worked at the Presidency were to enjoy a 20% per rise starting from January, 2012.

The letter dated 30th May, 2012 was sent to the Controller and Accountable-General's Department for such payments to be effected under the heading, SALARY INCREASE FOR POLITICAL APPOINTEES IN THE PRESIDENCY.

According to the letter, the effective date of implementation was 1st January, 2012 adding that the new salary levels and the associated arrears were to be paid in June, 2012 but according to our information that letter has not been honoured forcing the presidential staffers to embark on a strike to further bring to disrepute the name of the governing party.