Flagstaff House on fire over unpaid salaries

Credible information reaching your authoritative newspaper, THE CRYSTAL CLEAR LENS, from the seat of government, the Flagstaff House, reveals that Ghanaians are yet to witness one of the weird strikes ever in the history of Ghana. To put it blankly, all is not well at the Presidency and Presidential Staffers are set to bite the bullet and embark on a strike action against their government.

This shocking information gathered by this paper from some agitating presidential staffers indicates that President John Mahama is yet to come face-to-face with the numerous strikes being embarked upon almost every day by the Ghanaian worker as his own staffers will soon be greeting him anytime soon with the most shocking one.

Some of the aggrieved workers who spoke to this paper in condition of anonymity said 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 in the name of not being paid.

"But is it now getting out of hand. We don't know exactly what is happening to our salaries. There is no information about even when we are going to be paid and how much we will receive", one of them said angrily.

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 whichPresident John Dramani Mahama asked Parliament the Professor Ewurama Committee which pegged his monthly salary at Ghc120,000.00 while his Vice will take home 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.

Our information reveals that some of the staffers are suppose to receiving better pay than even Deputy Ministers of State. According to the detailed information, some of them are being paid over Gh?7, 195.20. But since they have been paid over a year now, one will wonder how much such salaries will accumulate to and where the government will get such money to pay them in the midst of many troubles.