{"id":97582,"date":"2025-10-08T03:43:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T03:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=97582"},"modified":"2025-10-08T03:43:00","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T03:43:00","slug":"they-wanted-votes-not-solutions-rashid-pelpuo-blames-npp-for-unpaid-nurses-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=97582","title":{"rendered":"They wanted votes, not solutions \u2013 Rashid Pelpuo blames NPP for unpaid nurses crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>3 Minute, 11 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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The Employment and Labour Relations Minister has accused the previous NPP administration of deliberately creating the current salary crisis facing thousands of newly recruited nurses and midwives. <\/p>\n

Dr Rashid Pelpuo, speaking on JoyNews PM Express<\/em> on October 7, said the issue was politically motivated and not the result of administrative failure.<\/p>\n

The Wa Central MP said the decision by the former government to employ thousands of health workers without adequate budgetary provision was aimed at winning votes and not solving unemployment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis tells the story of what complaints we had when we assumed office,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt the point of exit of the NPP government, they imposed on us 12,000 new workforce that they did not prepare to pay, didn\u2019t have the money to pay, but employed them. And then they exited. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe three-month budgets which they had to prepare as we took over didn\u2019t take into consideration any of these.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Dr Pelpuo, this is not the first time the NPP has handed over fiscal burdens to a succeeding government. <\/p>\n

\"They
Minister for Labour, Jobs and Employment, Dr Rashid Pelpuo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cRemember when President J.A. Kufuor was leaving, what was imposed on us was the Single Spine Salary Structure, which Atta Mills had to struggle with. So it\u2019s like their DNA to give the incoming government a problem, let them fail, and let the people say that they have failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described the act as irresponsible, saying outgoing administrations should not create new problems for their successors. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a good thing for us to be doing. Once your point of existence as a government comes to an end, go. The people had already rejected you. There\u2019s nothing you can do to bring yourself back to power. You can\u2019t recreate a future which had been lost.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked by host Evans Mensah about reports that some of the nurses were recruited as early as July 2024, months before the elections, Dr Pelpuo maintained that the move was politically calculated.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows that there had not been preparation. They had been preparing to contest elections. Everything that will give them a good image from the side of the young person who is unemployed and looking for a job is what they will do. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo they had done this over a period of time, hoping that in the culminating imposition of another 12,000 they would have then won the hearts of the young people and given them another mandate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pressed further if this meant the recruitment was done purely for electoral gain, Dr Pelpuo said, \u201cThat\u2019s the assumption. What they are doing has some level of political decision tied to it, not necessarily because they wanted to pay them, but just to give them the impression that they, too, are employed.\u201d<\/p>\n

He assured that the government is working to resolve the crisis soon. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not complaining. We are looking at the situation where we can satisfy the will of the people who have given us the mandate. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe acknowledge the fact that young people, as they are, need to start life and need to be comfortable working for what they have been employed to do. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we are doing everything to make it possible that we solve this problem before, maybe before the end of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments follow a protest by the Coalition of Unpaid Nurses and Midwives on October 2, where the group demanded payment of salaries for nearly 7,000 members who have been working without pay for close to ten months.<\/p>\n

Dr Pelpuo\u2019s remarks add a new layer to the controversy, suggesting that the roots of the crisis lie not in the current administration\u2019s inaction, but in what he calls a politically driven recruitment scheme by the previous government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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