PAY POLICE OFFICERS ON PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS. THE RIGHT ALLOWANCES – ASEPA TO POLICE BOARD

PAY POLICE OFFICERS ON PEACEKEEPING MISSIONS.THE RIGHT ALLOWANCES – ASEPA TO POLICE BOARD.

It has come to the attention of the Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability ~ ASEPA that police officers on peace keeping missions abroad are still receiving a meager $30 per Diem as wages after the government announced an additional $5 dollar increment taking the total daily wages for the security services on peace keeping missions to $35 an amount that is still fairly in adequate for the men who risk everything to be at the battlefront.

This has contributed to series of agitations among our men on peace keeping missions. We have received several calls from police officers on peace keeping missions abroad who have pushed their grievances to the police leadership through their unit commanders but have not received any satisfactory responses.

The officers alleges that all members of the security services who are on peace keeping missions with them on the same grounds have started receiving the increased allowance of $35 except them. Apart from that a $700 leave allowance that was supposed to be paid to them has still not seen any light of day.

They recall incidents in 2006 when officers on peacekeeping mission in Darfur were charged for uniforms and accommodations on their missions and had those cost deducted from their accrued wages and hope that this is not a recurrence of that situation.

Why do we treat our men in uniform in such insensitive manner, in any case why would a person risking his own life to protect lives and properties be asked to pay for his own uniform, food and accommodation on such missions? This goes a long way to depict how serious as a country we take issues of security concerns.

Not only do we not compensate our security men enough for the sacrifices they make, but we also do not honor them fairly after their enormous service to the nation and humanity at large, Go to all police barracks across the country and see the dilapidated apartments our men in uniform live in, it is a total eye sore.

We therefore call on the Police management board to facilitate the payment of the correct allowances to these police officers on international missions to put these agitations to rest. We also want a committee to be set up to investigate why these officers are yet to receive the right wages after the supposed increment a few months ago.

People have to be fired for failing to work, In Ghana we entertain so much mediocrity and excuses, People have to be fired for failing to do their job or at least be held accountable and that is the only way we can get our institutions to work and work effectively.