Temporary EC officers 'fight' Abuakwa South EC boss over allowance

Correspondence from Eastern Region:

Some temporary staff members of the Electoral Commission (EC) have accused the Abuakwa South Municipal Officer of the Commission of short-changing them over transportation allowances allotted to them during the just ended registration exercise to compile a new voters register.

The temporal EC officers, who were the Registration Officers on Special Duties (ROSD) during the exercise, alleged that the Municipal EC Officer, Mrs. Christabel Asante, gave each of them separate amounts between GHC 200.00 and GHC 600.00 instead of the GHC 1,000 earmarked for each of them by the EC Headquarters.

They alleged that several attempts to get Mrs. Asante to top up the remaining amounts have since proved futile, claiming she had been adamant.

According to some of them, due to their attempts to retrieve their monies from the Municipal EC Officer, she rejected their applications to be part of the upcoming Voter Register Exhibition exercise and has moreover decided not to pay their balance.

The ROSDs numbering 23 who were recruited by the EC to assist in the Voter Registration Exercise were supposed to take an amount of GHC 1,000 each for their T&T in the just ended exercise but the EC Officer only paid GHC 200 each to them.

One of the aggrieved ROSDs who spoke to Ghanaweb on anonymity said “For me I am not really sorted out. Some of the money is still in arrears. She was supposed to pay us GHC1,000.00 each but for me she paid me GHC600.00. For some she gave them GHC400. Meaning she still has to pay me GHC400.00 while some have their GHC600.00 in arrears.

“At first what she did was whoever sent their transfer stick to the office, she paid them GHC400 instead of GHC1,000 and pocketed GHC600. For those who did not send their transfer sticks, she decided to do that herself and not pay them at all. But because they raised an alarm, she then decided to pay them just GHC200.

“But later she later called some of us to come for some balance. So only eight of us went and she gave us the GHC200. That’s all.

“Sure, we applied for the upcoming Exhibition exercise. They took our details but the information we heard later was that those of us who took the GHC200 balance will not be included in the Exhibition exercise,” he said.

Another ROSD, a female, told Ghanaweb that she was only paid GHC200 of the GHC1,000 and was later called for additional money of GHC100, indicating that she collected GHC300.00 in all.

“I did not apply for the Exhibition exercise. I stated to them that if that was how they were doing their things, then I would not apply to do EC work again,” she expressed.

When Ghanaweb contacted Mrs. Christabel Asante, she called the bluff of the aggrieved ROSDs saying they were only working to unduly tarnish her reputation.

“Don’t mind them. I called them and spoke to them and gave them their top-ups. So what again do they need from me? Why are they going round with my name?

“And even the work, now we are recruiting only a limited number of workers and we cannot pick everybody. At some point some will drop. If today you were picked and another person is selected tomorrow, is that a crime?

“We have settled them. Those who complained to you, they just want to destroy my job. Even those people already have their permanent jobs, some of them are teachers and others. Why are they doing that?” the EC Director expressed.