The Executive Director for the National Service Authority (NSA), Osei Assibey Antwi, has blamed the delayed payments of National Service allowances on the Service personnel themselves, citing their failure to submit forms on time.
Addressing personnel ahead of their National Service, Assibey Antwi emphasized that the Authority is not intentionally delaying payments.
He acknowledged that the multi-step approval process in processing and disbursing allowance payments from the district level to the national headquarters contributes partly to the delay.
“We say that by 15th to 20th of every month, personnel are supposed to present their monthly forms, and by 20th, the District Manager should have uploaded. It then goes to the various regional offices. Then to the accountant who also forwards to the Regional Directors.
“And the Regional Directors have been given a time frame to work on it. When it goes to the head office, it also goes through five offices: the usage office, the audit office, the accountant, and then to the Executive Director. So, you could see the bureaucracy of how these forms are uploaded and worked on.”
He pointed out that, the primary cause of the delay is the lack of timely form submission by the service personnel.
According to him, this delay in form submission poses challenges to the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Limited (GhIPSS) of the Bank of Ghana in paying the outstanding allowances.
“So, the problem of delay, we can even say that it comes from most of them not succumbing to, as we have told them to bring their forms on time,” he stressed.
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