Low salaries forcing FDA Staff to leave – CEO

The Chief Executive Officer of the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Manso Opuni, has described the staff of the Authority as among the poorest paid in the country, warning that low remuneration is driving many highly trained professionals away.

Speaking at the FDA’s 2024 Annual Stakeholder Meeting on Wednesday, August 20, under the theme “Improving Productivity and Efficiency Through Digitalisation and Staff Commitment,” Prof. Opuni revealed that more than 67 staff members have resigned over the past five years due to poor conditions of service.

“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 meeting, which brought together stakeholders from the Ministries of Finance and Health, exporters, importers, and community leaders, focused on strategies to strengthen productivity and safeguard public health.Buy vitamins and supplements

Presenting updates, the Head of Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation at the FDA, Afua Amoako-Mensah, said the Authority is intensifying efforts to ensure compliance with food hygiene standards under 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