3,600 Teachers Cleared To Receive 2-Year Salary Arrears

The Auditor General’s Department is ready to present the documents of about 3,600 teachers to the Ministry of Finance for them to be paid their two years salary arrears.

Earlier this year, three teacher unions; the Ghana National Association of Teacher (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), threatened to go on a strike if all outstanding monies owed them were not paid by the end of February 2016.

Government however averted this after they assured the teacher associations that their money would be paid.

The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), David Ofori Acheampong, revealed that this unpaid group of teachers had not been cleared for payment by the Ministry of Finance all this while.

“This group didn’t have financial clearance at all, which means they haven’t been paid a single cedi since they were employed. That was as a result of the fact that GES didn’t seek financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance and that is being done now,” he explained.

Mr. Ofori Acheampong added that the Auditor General’s Department has now validated the documents of these teachers and has started the process of getting the money that is due them paid.

“We have compiled a list, the Auditor General has validated their documents and they have been found to have been at post. Right now the Auditor General is presenting a report to the Ministry of Finance because at the end of the day it is the report from the audit service that is supreme.”

A number of teachers who were expecting the payment of their salary arrears and allowances were expected to be left disappointed because an ongoing validation process of their documents to facilitate payments had been suspended.

Following claims that a number of the teachers in the country employed by the Ghana Education Service presented fake certificates, The Audit Department and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department, were validating the documents before payments are made.

Accusations and counter accusations

The Ghana Education Service (GES) had accused some of the teachers of faking their documents hence delaying the payments.

According to the GES, out of 14,575 input forms that were initially submitted by teachers for processing and payment, only 6,268 were found to be attached with genuine supporting documents.

The teacher unions responded by saying they are not to blame if some of the teachers have fake certificates and that the GES, which recruits teachers, should be blamed.

Some even called for the Director General Jacob Kor to be arrested for supervising the recruitment of these teachers.