Beneficiaries of the Youth in Afforestation program under the Forestry Commission said the government must do well to honour its promise to pay allowances owed them, or they will embark on a demonstration on Thursday, December 16.
The Chief Executive Officer of the program, John Allotey earlier announced that the government has released funds to pay at least three months arrears of allowances to the personnel by the end of next week.
But in an interview with Citi News, the beneficiaries indicated that previous promises did not yield results and are yet to receive official communication from the Ministry of Finance over the said payments.
The spokesperson for the Youth In Afforestation Program, Bossman Adutwum said “government owes us 6 months allowances. We were informed by our CEO that the government has given us green light to pay for three months. Some documents need to be signed before the payment will be made.”
“Despite this assurance, we are not at rest because we have been disappointed before. I, together with three others, have decided to go to the office to ascertain if indeed we will be given the allowances. If we do not get any such assurance, we will embark on a peaceful demonstration on Thursday.”
In March, some workers threatened to demonstrate if managers of the program failed to pay their five-month unpaid allowance.
This followed their alleged disengagement from the scheme for registering for the Nations Builders Corps (NaBCo).
According to them, the management of youth in afforestation asked them to resign from NaBCo to earn their unpaid five-month allowance.
But, upon their resignation, managers of youth in afforestation served them notice of their disengagement from the program, an action they believed was unfair to them.
In an interview with Citi News, some of the beneficiaries demanded full payment of their allowance and their re-engagement.
“The Deputy CEO told us to go for resignation letters from NaBCo and bring it to Forestry Commission for them to know that we are no longer part of the NaBCo system. We have that and the evidence is here. We have the resignation letter, and we have sent it to them. Last week, the Deputy CEO told us that although we have brought the letters, we have been taken off the system. They have not treated us fairly”, another said.
Last year, some of them in the Eastern Region threatened to embark on a series of demonstrations over the non-payment of allowances and poor working conditions.
Prior to that, several others in Greater Accra and other areas had also protested the non-payment of allowances.