34 Dismissed from Local Govt Service

Thirty-four people who were illegally recruited into the Local Government  Service have been dismissed.

Of the number, 17 were recruited by the Tano North District Assembly, seven by the Banda District Assembly and 10 by the Wenchi Municipal Assembly.

Confirming this in an interview, the Head of the Local Government Service Secretariat (LGSS), Dr Callistus Mahama, explained that the people involved had been sanctioned according to their levels of complicity.

" A few were dismissed and others were demoted and transferred to other district assemblies to work under strict supervision," Dr Mahama stated.

Interdiction

Last year, the LGSS interdicted 25 of its staff members for various alleged offences, including the illegal recruitment, backdating of salaries and forging the signatures of senior officers at the Regional Coordinating Councils.

Dr Mahama explained that an investigation was launched into the allegations which confirmed the existence of the various illegal acts.

Precedent

In the early part of last year, the LGSS noticed alleged illegal activities in some districts for which reason it set up a committee to investigate the issues.

"We were not very surprised in terms of the outcome of the recommendations," Dr Mahama stated.

He said a new committee was set up to review the report and state the actions that should be taken, hence the dismissal of all the people who were recruited illegally into the service.

Fresh cases

Currently, the secretariat is assisting the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) to investigate fresh cases of financial malfeasance in the Ashanti, Greater Accra and Eastern regions.

The secretariat has so far provided EOCO with the information it needed to carry out the investigations.