GES To Engage 9,323 Newly Trained Teachers

The Ministry of Finance has granted financial clearance to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to engage the services of 9,323 newly trained teachers. The emoluments of the newly trained teachers are to be charged against the GES Compensation of Employees Fund. The Ministry of Finance, in a letter to the Minister of Education, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, advised the minister to ensure that the newly trained teachers to be engaged had their documents processed early and placed on the mechanised payroll to enable the Controller and Accountant-General's Department to effect payment of their salaries in time. That, it said, would reduce the incidence of arrears to be paid to staff. The letter, which was dated September 10, 2015, said the effective date of appointment should not be earlier than October 1, 2015. "By a copy of this letter, the Controller and Accountant-General is requested to effect the payment of their salaries and make appropriate deductions of social security and income tax to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) and the Domestic Tax Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), respectively," it said. Free secondary education Meanwhile, the government has released GH�12,178,544 for the implementation of the progressively free secondary education programme for the first term of the 2015/2016 academic year. The amount was paid from the Annual Budget Funding Account (ABFA) of the government. A letter to that effect, signed by the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, Major M.S. Tara (retd), was made available to the Daily Graphic by officials of the Ministry of Finance yesterday. The letter, dated September 7, 2015, directed the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education to ensure that the transaction was inputted into the GIFMIS platform to facilitate the payment process. SHS subsidy The government has also, in line with 2015 budget implementation strategies, released GH�21,875,205 and GH�8,339,862 from the Approved Goods and Services Budget of the Ministry of Education for the payment of senior high school (SHS) subsidy for the second term of the 2014/2015 academic year and the payment of the capitation grant for the same period. In two separate letters dated September 14, 2015, both of which were signed by Major Tara, the Ministry of Finance advised the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education to submit expenditure returns to it on the disbursement of funds released with respect to SHS subsidies for the first term of the 2014/2015 academic year.