By Newman Anthony Levay
School bus drivers in Bo have raised concern over suspicious deductions from their monthly salaries by the City Council.
The aggrieved drivers said the Council told them that the deductions were for their contributions to the National Social Security and Insurance Trust.
The drivers are also concerned about the inconsistency in their salaries. According to them, the Council paid them only Le500, 000 in September 2019 and Le800, 000 in October and November respectively. They wondered why this so even though their contract letters stated that they should be paid Le1, 000, 000.
One of the drivers, Komba Jombo, said: “We started with Le500, 000, second month and third month Le800, 000. The CA (Chief Administrator) said the Le 200, 000 is for the NASSIT.”
“We have enquired with other drivers in Freetown and they said they are paid Le900, 000 and the Le100,000 goes for NASSIT,” he added.
Jombo said they had already gone to NASSIT to check if the money was going to their account, but that they were asked to get the Council’s authorization to access their accounts.
“We went to NASSIT to check, but they said council should write to them to request for update. We want to know where our money is going,” Jombo said.
The drivers say they hand over Le450, 000 as daily takings to the Coordinator of the buses at the council, Haja Alima. They said the Council recently called them to a meeting last week where they demanded that this year they should be making Le 520, 000 as daily takings.
The drivers also expressed concern over lack of accountability in the way the Council handles the takings. They say when they hand over their takings, it is not recorded, nor have they been requested to sign any document to show how much they have made for the day.
“I want government to intervene so they will know how Bo City Council is treating us,” said Ali Abu, another bus driver.
The Bo City Council is one of several councils that complained about the running cost of the school buses, leading to the temporary shutdown of the service across the country for most part of January.
Last week the government announced a bailout package for the running of the school buses. This package includes the provision of fuel and the payment of salaries for all bus drivers.
Chief Administrator of the Bo City Council, Edmund Alpha, admitted that they had been deducting Le 200,000 monthly from the driver’s salary. But he said the money goes to NASSIT, noting that they also deduct some money as PAYE (Pay As You Earn) tax to the National Revenue Authority.
Mr Alpha said the drivers were paid Le500, 000 during their first month of service because they only worked for half of the month.
Bo City has five of the 47 school buses that were distributed nationwide. Each of the buses have two drivers. Alpha denied allegations that the Council was not open to transparency.
"The buses have an account at the Zenith Bank, and we have a committee assigned to monitor the school bus account. We are open to accountability and we want the public also to be monitoring the school buses,” he said.
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