Prof. Kwasi Opoku- Amankwah
The Ghana Education Service (GES) has stated categorically that the legacy arrears owed teachers for the period of 2012 to 2016 have been paid in full.
Responding to claims by the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Musah, that the money had not been paid, the GES said, “The facts show that out of a total of 97,791 applications received for the final audit for legacy arrears, 83,763 were validated as being owed and have all been paid in full.”
“This represents a 100 per cent payment of all validated claims,” a statement signed by the Director General of the GES, Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, said.
The GES further noted that the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Controller and Accountant General’s Department, the Audit Service, Ministry of Education, GES, and the various unions in the pre-tertiary education space met to reconcile the figures to facilitate the payments, if any.
“The GES received the data of the 14,028 personnel being the outstanding figure from the total applicants received from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department.
“Management of the GES contends that only 2,558 out of the 14,028 have so far not been paid and has subsequently been sent to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to be processed for payment and the unions have been duly informed,” the statement said.
The GES said the unions on their part presented a total of 4,881 of which the GES had requested personnel among the list sent out, who can justify that they are entitled to be paid the legacy arrears to submit the following information to their respective regional / district directorates of education.
“For those whose legacy arrears relate to salary to present first appointment letter, assumption of duty letter, and the first pay slip and for those whose legacy arrears relate to promotions a promotion letter and a pay slip on which the first salary on the promoted grade was paid (sic),” the statement directed.
It explained that the approach had become necessary because the data available to the GES does not justify the payment of the legacy arrears to such personnel.
“These facts are perfectly known to the General Secretary of GNAT and, therefore, the statement attributed to him that ‘so far no teacher has been paid the legacy arrears’ is misleading,”
the statement added.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri