You can end your National Service without getting paid – NSS

Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Secretariat, Gifty Oware Aboagye, has reiterated the reasons most National Service Personnel (NSP) do not get paid.

The Secretariat has been alleged to have defaulted in paying allowances to personnel for March and April after managing to disburse payments for only January and February.

NSPs have hinted of possible strike action should the delay in payment of allowances persist. In a statement released by the National Executive Committee of the National Service Personnel Association (NASPA), the personnel indicated they will have no option but to advise themselves if, by May 17, 2022, their allowances are not paid.

However, Gifty Oware Aboagye in an interview with Don Kwabena Prah on Happy98.9 FM’s ‘Epa Hoa Daben’ socio-political talk show, shared her discomfort to address the leading factor attributed to the delay in payment of NSPs allowances.

“It is mostly difficult to answer whether all personnel have been paid. We pay personnel who have submitted their monthly duty forms,” she said.

The Deputy Executive Director of the NSS indicated that most personnel fail to follow laid down procedures, hence the delay or failure to receive their allowances.

“NSPs are supposed to submit their forms 16th of every month for review. So as at yesterday, everyone was supposed to submit their monthly duty forms for the month of May. But most of them won’t submit until the end of the month. Meanwhile, before they started their service, we explained these to them during our campus tour orientations”.

She added “failure to submit these things, they cannot be paid. They can do their service for the full year and still not get paid. We also use processes to disburse our payment so if you fail to go and get validated at the district level to be linked to the regional for the regional director to confirm the legitimacy of the personnel to us then we can’t pay you,” she explained.