The Ministry of Finance has authorised the Controller and Accountant-General to release GH¢49.99 million to pay outstanding transfer grants and other allowances to qualified staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
The payment covers accumulated arrears from 2017 to 2019.
An inter-ministerial memo signed by a Deputy Minister of Finance, Ms Abena Osei-Asare, and copied to officials, including the ministers of Finance and Education, as well as their deputies and chief directors, as well as the Director-General of the GES, a copy of which the Daily Graphic has sighted, gave the breakdown of the payments as GH¢38.95 million, while GH¢11.05 million would be paid as other allowances.
On an annual basis, the memo stated, GH¢18.33 million was in respect of for 2017, with 2018 being GH¢16.23 million, while 2019 had GH¢15.44 million accumulated.
At a press conference in Accra yesterday, the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr David Ofori Acheampong, said all the affected teachers would be paid at the end of September.
Responding to a question on threats by six regional chairmen of the association to go on strike if the arrears were not cleared, he said the threat was uncalled for, since all the issues they raised were being addressed.
The six regional chairmen are Mr Attan Longiya, Northern; Mr Kuule Ivon, Upper West; Mr Korah Maurice, Upper East, and Mr David Kattah, Volta.
The rest are Rev. Dr Isaac Owusu, Central, and Mr Ransford N.K. Lolih, Greater Accra.
Among others, the chairmen, who jointly signed a press release, said they “have been inundated with incessant calls and agitation from our members across the regions seeking to embark on an industrial action due to the inability of our employers, the Ghana Education Service (GES), to resolve the many challenges confronting our members”.
They enumerated the challenges to include the non-renewal of the collective bargaining agreement, the GES-SIC Life Insurance policy deductions, non-payment and difficulty in placing staff on additional responsibility allowances and challenges confronting the implementation of the standard-based curriculum.
Challenges
Other challenges are the non-payment of salary arrears, non-payment of transfer grants and transport and traveling allowances, delay in advertisement interview and issuance of promotion letters, delay in salary adjustment, the extension in contact hours without commensurate remuneration and the re-instatement of the 110 basic school headteachers in the Ga West District in the Greater Accra Region.
