Leadership of the three Teacher Unions namely: Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and Coalition of Concerned Teachers Association (CCT) has maintained their early stands that government of Ghana owns teachers about 16 million Ghana Cedis.
According to them President John Dramani Mahama under his leadership had failed to pat teachers their allowances which includes: car maintenance and motor bike allowances, and transfer grants since year 2012 to date.
At a joint press conference held in Accra yesterday in a swift response to claims made by the Director General of the Ghana Education Service Mr. Jacob Kor, the President of NAGRAT Mr. Christian Addie Poku still maintained that the government and by extension GES owes teachers over GHC16 million.
He explained that government last year released an amount of one million Ghana Cedis (GHc1.000.000.00) to pay for the first quarter of 2015. “It is therefore strange how our Director General could confidently look teachers and indeed all Ghanaians in the face and to tell us that Ghc16 million minus one million Ghana Cedis is equal to zero” he added.
He stated that the Ghc16 million owe them by government does not form part of the salary arrears to newly recruited teachers, those on promotions, reengagement and reinstatement which Director General of GES erroneously claimed they have all been paid.
It is important to note that even the three months that were paid, we received reports that some District Directors failed to pay the money to teachers, claiming that government had not paid them their subventions so they used that money to run the districts, Mr. Poku opined.
The unions have however, sent a strong signal to government and the ministry of Education that until all arrears are paid by 29 February 2016, their position to go on strike remains unchanged. Saying we are resolute in our demands which must be met the 29th of February 2016.
According to Mr Poku the claim by GES that some teachers have been caught teaching with fake documents and certificates, was a baseless criminalization and defamation of the hard won reputation of a lot of the affected teachers.
“If GES sees them to be fraudsters after putting them on pay roll as well as paying them their three months of their salary arrears why are they still at post” he asked.
The NAGRAT President mentioned that their investigations revealed that lot of the supporting documents to teachers’ applications got detached due to the poor handling by either officials in GES headquarters or by the Audit Service.
“It is therefore a shame that the suffering teachers are being blamed for allegedly presenting incomplete documents for payment. We rather blame it on inefficiency and maladministration on the part of management” he added.
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