Ghana’s contact-tracers resigning over payment issues - Akandoh claims

Some contact-tracers working with the COVID-19 team Ghana are resigning due to nonpayment of their allowances by the government, Kwabena Minkah Akandoh, Member of Parliament for Juaboso, has said.

He said out of fear of victimisation, those who have resigned do not come out to speak, except to throng his office with complaints.

“The COVID-19 situation has been managed badly by the government”, he said, adding: “As I speak to you now, the allowances of some contact-tracers haven’t been paid”.

“So, the contact-tracer have resigned from their work. A lot of them come to my office to complain because they are afraid that they will be victimised by the government,” he said on the Ghana Yensom show on Accra 100.5FM Tuesday, 2 June 2020.

Meanwhile, Mr Minkah Akandoh has said he has a problem with the calls by some people in society for the two Members of Parliament who have tested positive for COVID-19, to be named publicly.

He said since no such disclosure of any of the more than 7,000 confirmed cases in Ghana has been made since the country recorded her first two cases, it cannot be right to make the identities of the two stricken MPs known to the public.

“Members of Parliament are not super humans and not different from the other citizens in the country. If the identity of the individuals who have tested positive weren’t made public when we started recording the cases, why should the identities of the two MPs be made know?”

“I have a difficulty with the calls for the public disclosure”, he said.

Two lawmakers and 13 staff of Parliament have, so far, tested positive for COVID-19, Minority Chief Whip Mubarak Mohammed Muntaka revealed about a week ago after denials by Parliament and the Majority Leader.

According to Mr Mubarak, the infected MPs were informed of their status after the Speaker of Parliament directed mass testing of all members and staff of the House last week.

Since the announcement, some Ghanaians have called for the identity of those affected staff and MPs to be made public.