The Minister for Defense, Lt. Gen. Joseph Henry Smith

The Minister for Defense, Lt. Gen. Joseph Henry Smith, has reassured troops of the Ghana Armed Forces of the government’s continue support and provision of logistics to enhance their operational capacity.

The minister made this remark when he addressed a cross-section of all ranks at an end-of –year durbar attended by the Minister for Finance and Economies Planning, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, at Burma Camp last Thursday, December 29,2011.

The ministry on behalf of the Commander-In-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces has seen a lot of development, which has become possible because of the support of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

He thanked Dr. Duffuor for making himself available to explain to the troops, the differences in the Rank Based Salary structure. He spoke on various projects and programmes being undertaken under the Poly Technologies Incorporated (PTI) initiative and expressed the hope that they will go a long way to improve the accommodation and working conditions of all ranks.

Lt. Gen. Smith congratulated the service chief and troops on the good work done in 2011 and urged them not to be discouraged by the inciting reportage being made by some newspapers but rather maintain the same professionalism and esprit de corps, in order to achieve the targeted goal in the years ahead.

Dr. Kwabena Duffuor earlier explained that the Single Spine Salary Structure is meant to remove inequalities in the salary structure of public service workers but not necessarily to increase salaries. He also expressed gratitude to the armed force for displaying professionalism in the discharge of their duties.

Dr. Duffuor also commended personnel of the armed forces for their dedicated service in 2011 and asked that the same level of dedication be exhibited in 2012.

He further said the government’s budget was rigid because of the laws put in place to regulate its disbursement but when it come to the allocation of funds, the Defense Ministry is always considered, since every country needed security in order to propel its economic status.

He urged the Ministry of Defense to forward all challenges it faced to the finance ministry for appropriate remedial action to be taken.

Dr Duffuor said pensioners have also benefited from the Rank Based Salary Structure. On the arrears of the 20 per cent across the board increase in salaries, he said funds have been released and the first payment made. He asked soldiers to be patient as the rest of the arrears due them will be paid by March, 2012.

The two ministers took turns to answer questions from the troops. Present at the durbar were the Chief of the Defense Staff, service chiefs, senior military officers, a cross-section of troops drawn from all the garrisons, civilian employees of the Ghana Armed Forces and some officials of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Finances and Economic Planning.

Source: Daily Graphic

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