The Electoral Commission (EC) has so far paid about 46,000 electoral officials who worked during the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections, Deputy Chairman of the EC in-charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare has said.
According to him, the commission is expected to pay over 236,000 officials nationwide but payment had delayed due to the late appointment of ministers on the side of the government to fast track issues of finances.
“Unlike the 2019 district assembly elections, this election is different because of change in government and so we have to wait for the government to appoint its ministers before any budget is tendered since we had no finance minister by then,” he added.
Dr Bossman Asare said this in a radio interview monitored by the Ghanaian Times yesterday in Accra.
He said the commission had written to the various officials to give them ample time to put the necessary protocols in place in order to pay them, adding that “about 50,000 officials will be paid this week.”
Dr Bossman Asare indicated that the payment would be done in batches due to the numbers involved.
However, he said processes for payment had been initiated but the commission encountered some challenges with respect to wrong account details that some officials gave.
“Some anomalies including incorrect bank details and names have been noticed that need to be corrected. All officials should be rest assured that the Commission will pay them as soon as the anomalies are rectified,” he added.
This response comes after some temporary staff recruited for the 2020 elections recently took to social media to register their displeasure over the commission’s unfair treatment being meted out to them.
These consist of thousands of individuals recruited to represent the Electoral Commission across polling stations nationwide.
BY VIVIAN ARTHUR