Mfantseman National Service Scheme personnel undergo orientation

Saltpond (C/R), Feb. 14, GNA - The Mfantseman District National Service Coordinator, Mr Alfa Atia Alpha has urged district assemblies to create a revolving fund to support National Service Personnel working in their districts to overcome their financial problems.Mr Alpha said such a fund could be given to service personnel as loans when their allowances were delayed."Delays in the payment of allowances of service personnel, especially during the first quarter of their service period affect productivity as most of them have to be moving round looking for loans to survive."
     He made the appeal at an orientation course for 115 personnel who had been posted to the District.The Coordinator appealed to the assemblies to ensure that some rooms were reserved for Service Personnel in communities where their services would be needed, as accommodation had been one of the major problems facing them.Mr Alpha suggested the establishment of a canteen service to be jointly owned by the Assembly and the National Service Secretariat, as there were few or no good canteens to serve workers and visitors to the District capital, Saltpond.
     He urged service personnel user agencies to provide job schedules to those working under them and also to ensure effective supervision over their work to prevent them from idling about.Mr Lawer Hushie, Gomoa District Coordinator, said plans were far advanced for the National Service Secretariat in the two Districts to establish Credit Unions for their members to help them to solve their financial problems and urged all personnel to embrace it when it took off.
     Mr Hushie said henceforth service personnel had to submit monthly evaluation report on their performance before they would be allowed to collect their allowances.
     Mr Robert Quainoo-Arthur, District Chief Executive (DCE) urged the service personnel to regard themselves as agents of change and help to remove ignorance, apathy towards national issues and other negative tendencies that retarded development from the society.
     The DCE said to be able to do that, society must see them as role models.He noted that the National Service Scheme was established to offer opportunities to young graduates from the nation's tertiary institutions to gain some experience in our rural set up and the job market.The DCE said such experience would enable them to plan better towards national development when they were placed in responsible positions.Mrs Comfort Esiah-Donkoh, an Assistant Director at the District Office of Ghana Education Service took the participants through the ethics and code of conduct of teachers in the Ghana Education Service.
14 Feb. 07