● Some members of the Upper West Regional Youth Parliament
Private security guards (watchmen) in the Upper West Region are said to be underpaid as they received between GH₵100 and GH₵399.00 as their monthly salary.
This was among a number of findings of a study that was launched into the activities of private security operatives in the Upper West Region following the recent murder and disappearance of private security guards in the Wa Municipality of the region.
The research which was conducted by the Upper West Youth Parliament titled “Assessing Private Security Accountability in the Wa Municipality of the Upper West Region” involved 50 respondents which included private security guards, staff of private security companies and owners of facilities that engaged the services of the security guards.
For a job that was of a high risk, the study revealed that persons who were engaged in the field were mostly not given any training or logistics to better protect themselves, making it riskier than was expected.
Presenting the findings to the media at a meeting at Wa, the Speaker of the Youth Parliament, Mr James Baba Anabiga expressed concern over the salary that was paid to persons engaged in the service and said it was nothing to write home about considering the risk involved.
“These are mostly married men with children who do not even live around their places of work, they have to ride several kilometres to get to their workplaces only to take such meagre amount at the end of the month”, he lamented.
He explained that among the group, older men who were engaged as private security guards for schools were the least paid as they did not have any job contract to even show how much they received.
“Many of the security guards are old men and some do not take even up to GH₵200.00 a month yet have to stay at their workplaces which are mostly in isolated places through the night without any logistics to protect them,” he said.
He revealed that those who were engaged through private security companies received less salaries even though their companies were paid above GH₵600.00.
The study, he said, uncovered that young men rejected the job for the old men to do due to the meagre salaries they were paid.
The Youth Parliament further suggested that the aged watchmen be withdrawn from such job and rolled onto the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) Programme.
From Lydia Darlington Fordjour, Wa