Deputy Minister orders pensioners occupying state bungalows to vacate

Mrs Freda Prempeh, a Deputy Minister of Works and Housing has expressed concern about the deplorable nature of government bungalows in the country.

She has therefore given a three-week ultimatum to some pensioners who were still occupying state bungalows to vacate or face forceful ejection.
Mrs Prempeh gave the ultimatum when she went round to inspect some government bungalows in the Sunyani Municipality.

It was revealed during the visit that public sector workers who had gone on retirement for more than three years were still occupying the bungalows.
Mrs Prempeh who is the Member of Parliament for Tano North in the Brong-Ahafo Region got agitated by the revelation and described the situation as unacceptable.

She directed the estate unit of the Brong-Ahafo Regional Coordinating Council to provide comprehensive data base on all pensioners occupying government bungalows in the region.

Mrs Prempeh said the Ministry had set up a taskforce that was going round to inspect and eject pensioners who were still occupying government bungalows.
She warned that the taskforce would soon extend its operations to the regional and district levels across the country.

The Deputy Minister hinted that the Ministry was working out modalities to revise the Pension Act so that certain percentage of the contributions of public workers would be used to secure affordable housing for them.
In addition, Mrs Prempeh explained that the national housing policy would also be reviewed and stringent measures would be adopted to surcharge occupants of government bungalows who failed to maintain their apartments.

She emphasised the contributions of public sector workers towards accelerated national development could not be underestimated but however added that should not be a yardstick for workers to destroy state property.