The Food and Drugs Authority’s (FDA) chief executive officer, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Manso Opuni, has warned that the Authority’s employees are among the lowest paid in the nation and that their low pay is deterring many highly qualified experts from working there.
Speaking on Wednesday, August 20, at the FDA’s 2024 Annual Stakeholder Meeting with the theme “Improving Productivity and Efficiency Through Digitalization and Staff Commitment,” Prof. Opuni disclosed that negative working conditions have caused over 67 employees to leave the agency in the last five years.
“FDA staff are among the worst-paid workers in Ghana. They are not properly paid under the single spine. Last year alone, about 48 left for better-paying jobs in well-resourced organisations,” he said.
He urged the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the Ministry of Finance to fast-track approval of the Authority’s new conditions of service, stressing that only 18 out of several staff recruitment requests had been cleared by the Ministry, with the rest supported through internally generated funds.
The discussion, which included exporters, importers, community leaders, and stakeholders from the Ministries of Finance and Health, concentrated on ways to improve productivity and protect public health.
Afua Amoako-Mensah, the FDA’s Head of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation, gave an update, stating that the Agency is stepping up its efforts to guarantee adherence to food safety regulations through its Street Food Vending Permit Scheme.
“In the year under review, we trained 3,510 food vendors and issued 1,094 permits. However, many vendors failed to complete the process by securing health certificates despite follow-up reminders,” she explained.
She added that the FDA is also collaborating with border security agencies to clamp down on non-compliant products entering the country.