The MP for Binduri, Dr. Robert Kuganab-Lem, has described as useless the fanfare that characterised the restoration of the abolished trainee nurses allowances.
A host of government officials, including president Akufo-Addo converged in Sunyani Tuesday to officially announce the restoration of the trainee nurses allowances at a ceremony. In 2014, the government of former president John Mahama cancelled the payment of all allowances, including nursing trainees’.
The scraping of the allowances was met with grave disapproval, assuming a key weapon of the Akufo-Addo 2016 campaign.
The government said the restored monthly allowances of the trainee nurses will cost it a whopping GH¢232million this academic year. About 58,000 nurses and midwives are expected to benefit from the restored policy. They will be paid GH¢400 each monthly during the 2017/2018 academic year.
The Conference of Heads of Health Training Institutions (COHHETI) praised the government for restoring the scrapped allowances.
Speaking at the launch of the restored policy the President of COHHETI, Josephine Ansu-Gyeabour extolled the government for upholding its campaign pledge.
“…Clearly, it will ensure that financial hardships on parents or guardians, the students as well as school administrators are considerably reduced,” she said excitedly.
But commenting on the move on Starr Today Tuesday, Dr. Kuganab-Lem who is also the ranking member of the health committee of parliament asked: “What is all these about?”
He continued: “We are still in the mood making campaign promises. Why re-launch when the students are not having money in their pocket? We are joking as a country. What the president did was to promise again.
“It is useless and the waste of the Ghanaian tax resource. The issue is not about talk. What the students want is money. Where is the money? When you are elected as a government, you are elected to implement policies, to make things work. You are not elected to continue talking. You are not elected to spend money on a re-launch that has no result.”
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM
