We Are Not Ghost Workers—Teachers Decry Suspended Salaries

Teachers whose June salaries have been frozen by the Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD) are accusing the government of scheming to “shortchange” public sector workers.

According to them, they duly submitted their SSNIT numbers as requested by the CAGD, therefore writing them off as ghost names is unfortunate.

The president of the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ernest Opoku on Eyewitness News stated that the teachers are very disappointed with the Ministry of Finance’s directive “and we think that it’s a ploy to shortchange Ghanaian workers and for that matter, teachers.”

In June this year, the CAGD advised all government employees to submit their social security information to their respective Personnel Processing Sections (PPSs) before June 12, 2015 to avoid the deletion of their names from the payroll.

Subsequently, the Coalition of Concerned Teachers issued a statement that about 15,000 teachers will be affected because of the insistence from the Controller and Accountant General that they do not have SSNIT numbers on their pay slips.

On Friday, however, the Finance Ministry directed the CAGD to suspend payment of salaries to all public sector workers who failed to submit their SSNIT numbers as earlier directed.

An angry Ernest Opoku explained that when the directive was given, he relayed the information to his colleague teachers who submitted their SSNIT numbers to the Ghana Education Service (GES).

The Director General of the GES, he said, assured them that their numbers have been forwarded to the Controller.

“So we are very much surprised that the Controller decided to take this decision. Over 15,000 teachers have been affected by this directive including myself,” he lamented.

Mr Opoku narrated that upon hearing the news that their salaries will be suspended, he met with the Controller and Accountant General to explain the situation, but her response was all the affected names are ghost names.

“I decided to have a meeting with the Controller and what the woman said was that they believe the people are ghosts so I asked her if I am a ghost,” he recounted.

Mr Opoku told Eyewitness News host, Richard Sky, that they are considering bringing legal action against the GES, Finance Ministry and the CAGD or better still, they will demonstrate.

“If we have to go to court, we will go to court; if we have to demonstrate against the Controller, the Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Education Service, we would,” he warned.

He argued that it is painful for teachers to work throughout the month only for them not to receive their meager salaries at the end of the month.

“It is a worrying situation but it is only in Ghana that a Minister can sit somewhere and issue directives that at the end of the month don’t pay workers’ salaries and then Controller too will go ahead.”

“I don’t know what is happening in this country and I think that we must rise up and say that enough is enough.”