The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Musah Tanko, is calling for more engagements on the directive that seeks to stop contract extensions for retirees.

He argued that retirees whose services are still needed should either be given 2-year extensions or be engaged as consultants.

In his estimation, retention would ensure that organisational memories are transferred seamlessly as there is no proper succession plan in the civil service.

“There should be a succession plan and continuity in civil service,” he said on the TV3’s Key Points on Saturday, April 12, 2025.

He strongly advocated for the engagement of retirees as consultants.

“We engage the persons as consultants, so we need to choose either you give the person 2 years to continue to engage the person as a consultant. We are dealing with organisational memory, because we do not take time, we lose organisation memory,” he added.

Thomas Musah was, however, quick to add that labour is not against the retirement age of 60 years but is only concerned about the implications of the directive.

He consequently called for a thorough discussion on the suspension of post-retirement contracts to ensure that their implementation does not create challenges.

Background

The Office of the President, on April 2, 2025, issued a directive suspending the grant of contract appointments to retired public service staff.

In a letter dated April 2, 2025, and signed by Dr Callistus Mahama, Executive Secretary to the President, the presidency announced that all post-retirement contract appointments are to be put on hold.

“The grant of post-retirement contract appointments to retired public service staff has been suspended with immediate effect,” the statement said in part.

As a result of the new directive, the Office of the President emphasised that “all requests for such appointments will no longer be considered.”

VPO/AE

Meanwhile, catch up on the concluding part of the story of Fort William, where children were sold in exchange for kitchenware, others, below: