Almost 60 per cent of complaints received about the misconduct of Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) personnel from the public involve officers from the Metro Guards Unit, Mr Yohane Amarh Ashitey, Tema Metropolitan Chief Executive has revealed.

He said in the recent past at least six Metro Guards officers had either been suspended with no salaries or reprimanded as a measure to restore discipline among them.

He disclosed this in a sessional address at the First Ordinary Assembly Meeting of the Third Session of the Eighth Assembly of the TMA.

He observed that even though they were one of the most visible personnel of the Assembly in the public space, unfortunately, it was one of the Units that had had a lot of bashing from within the TMA and the public for several acts of misconduct.

“Discipline among the personnel has been a major concern and I have resolved to deal with the issues head-on. Our goal of Making Tema Shine Again will be a mirage if those who are supposed to be the face of the Assembly do not reflect the new dispensation,” he said.

The MCE said to make the Metro Guards Unit live up to expectation, he had decided that apart from the personnel enjoying the needed promotions, their risk allowance should be restored with effect from April 2022, while arrangements were also underway to provide the personnel with some refresher training.

On other administrative-related issues, he said the remuneration paid to TMA’s Internally Generated Fund(IGF) staff was one of the lowest in the metropolis.

The MCE said to build a strong cadre of staff dedicated to the ideals of the Assembly, it had decided to analyse the remuneration paid vis a vis the job description of the staff and the revenue generated by the Assembly and conclude that there should be a systematic approach to raise the salaries of its staff in the short to long the term.

“Consequently, it has been decided that a case by case approach will be adopted to adjust the salaries of our IGF staff based on the work they do,” he said.

Mr. Ashitey said the majority of the IGF staff had never been promoted since they were employed.

He explained it meant that someone employed as a Revenue Collector eight years ago as an IGF staff in TMA, would still be on that same grade whilst a colleague with similar qualification employed by the Office of the Local Government Service at the same time would be getting to the rank of a Revenue Superintendent with all the perks and respect that go with the grade.

He said obviously, such situations do not create conscientious and dedicated personnel, adding that in that respect, management had decided that every year, at least 10 percent of the Assembly’s IGF staff should be promoted to build their confidence and also motivate them to give off their best.

The Tema Metropolis MCE stated that on the assumption of duty, one major problem he observed was the tracking of correspondences in the administrative set-up, as letters and memos easily got lost and became difficult to trace.

He said in some cases, clients had to re-submit copies of letters they once submitted to the Assembly to have their concerns attended to.

“My administration has made efficient service delivery a cardinal part of the assembly’s operations.

“An electronic information tracking system (Dubbed MEMO TRACKER) is being developed so that requests that come from the public are not only expeditiously attended to but we eliminate or reduce to the barest minimum incidents of correspondences getting lost in the process,” he added.