20100803
africanews

Personnel of the Ghana Police Service are 'wildly excited' over the substantial increases in their take-home pay following the implementation of the country's Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS). About 23,000 personnel of the Service have since seen the new pay levels hitting their accounts.

Though officials of the police service are tight-lipped over the increment, reports say the lowest rank in the police service has seen about 200 per cent increase in their take-home pay.

Director of Public Affairs at the Police Service, Superintendent Kwesi Fori described the pay rise as “shocking and very positive”, according to myjoyonline.

He said this would boost the morale of personnel and warned that the fight against corrupt officers would be intensified to weed out the actual miscreants within the service.

“This new chapter should create an opportunity for us all to work harder to commit ourselves in the areas of crime fighting; make sure we partner civil society well and bring security to bear in all jurisdictions throughout the country. And we are very grateful.”

Expressing the Service’s gratitude to the government and Ghanaians for their support that saw the implementation of the SSSS, he said the development would make it incumbent on personnel to be “nationalistic and committed to the ideals of the nation” to protect the citizenry.

Kwesi Fori charged police personnel to sacrifice for the nation and make sure their work commensurates with the increment.

Already, he said, the Ghana Police Service has increased the number of night patrols, and promised to engage in preventive policing, and would also do their best to investigate and apprehend criminals.

But a security analyst, Mr Emmanuel Sowatey doubted if the substantial increase would translate into effective policing as expected.

He cautioned all to adopt the “let’s wait and see attitude”, arguing it would only boost the morale of about 30% of the personnel. He prayed that attention would be directed at recruitment and logistics.

Meanwhile, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission is hopeful that it will be able to migrate all public sector workers onto the Single Spine Structure by September this year.

The Chief Executive of the Commission George Smith Graham says the September deadline is feasible if it gets the necessary cooperation from workers.