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Gov’t directs ‘immediate’ release of ¢1.7m to teachers after strike threat

kencitymediagh
Feb 25, 2016
2 min read

The government has directed the immediate release of ¢1.79 million to teachers after reaching an agreement with three unions which had threatened to strike over the payment of their arrears.

The agreement was announced by Labour Minister, Haruna Iddrisu after a crucial meeting with leaders of National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers, (GNAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) who had vowed to strike after March 29 if the ¢15million arrears from 2012 to 2015 are not paid.

The teachers maintained that the 2013 and 2014 salary arrears of newly recruited teachers are still outstanding.

They also pointed out that arrears for teachers who have been promoted.

The Government through the Ghana Education Service (GES) had insisted it does not owe the teachers. The GES had alleged that some 8,307 teachers in the system were working with fake certificates.

Director General of the GES, Jacob Kor at a press conference last week Friday said the intended strike was unjustified.

“…It was detected that some teachers were holding fake documents including certificates to support their claims while others were not at post. This is confirmed by the fact that, out of the 14,575 input forms that were initially submitted for processing and payment, 6,268 were found to be genuine with all the supporting documents, while the remaining 8,307 input forms were queried by the Audit Service on the grounds of non-inclusion of certificates, establishment warrant, assumption of duty letters and acceptance letters.”

He added that, “All these forms were therefore sent back to the district offices through the regional education offices of the Ghana Education Service. In the meantime, all the 6,268 teachers whose claims were validated have since January 1, 2016, been duly paid. It is therefore not true that no arrears have been paid as the public is made to believe.”

But in a quick u-turn, Haruna Iddrisu told journalists Wednesday that the concerns on salary arrears of the teachers are “legitimate”.

The Minister, however, insisted there are ghost names on teacher payroll which needs to be sanitized for a “better and cleaner payroll”.

As part of the agreement clinched with the teachers, the government is to see to the cleaning up of the payroll so it can determine the exact number of teachers who need to be paid the 2013, 2014, and 2015 arrears.

The government has four more days to complete the work of validating the identity of several thousands of teachers before the threat of a strike can be completely removed.

Despite clinching a first-round victory, the leaders of the teachers say “it is not yet time to rejoice”.

“There is no room for rejoicing until the team comes out with a report.”