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22.05.2007 General News

Teachers to be paid Thursday

22.05.2007 LISTEN
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Following a front page publication by "The Ghanaian Times" on Monday May 21, 2007 that over 10,000 teachers have not been paid salaries since October 2006, the Controller and Accountant General says all the affected teachers will be paid by Thursday.

The Controller, Christian Sottie said that the salary vouchers were sent to the banks yesterday morning and was hopeful that the teachers could go to the banks on Thursday for their money, which included 10 months of arrears.

Mr Sottie noted that his office has erroneously been blamed for the delay in the payment of salaries and explained that over the past two years, the processing of salaries had been decentralised and was being done by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).

"We only generate reports of the inputs made by the MDAs and send them to the banks," he said and added that in the case of the teachers, the Ghana Education Service is the agency in charge of the process.

Mr. Sottie further explained that a newly-recruited teacher had to be served with a letter of appointment, which should be followed with an acceptance letter and medical examination before assuming duty.

Subsequently, the teacher fills a form and sends it to the pay processing centre of the GES which is linked by a server.

With regard to the latest problem of the teachers, Mr. Sottie said it came to his notice three weeks ago at a meeting with GES officials.

He said his office opted to provide personnel to key in 8,000 entries which they were able to execute within three days.

He bemoaned the high level of bureaucracy in the Civil Service, which he said was the cause, of such delays over the years. However, he said, he was optimistic that the situation will improve considerably with time.

John Nyoagbe, a Deputy General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, disclosed the news about the non-payment of the teachers salaries at a training workshop last Friday, for teachers in Koforidua.

He said the affected teachers included newly trained teachers, those who returned from study leave and others who were recruited as far back as 2004.

He attributed the delay to the inability to access information stored in a previous database.

Source: The Ghanaian Times

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