General News of Wednesday, 13 July 2011

Source: Daily Guide

Teachers Not Paid For 24 Months

Teachers at Afram Plains and other parts of the country have complained bitterly about the inability of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to pay their salaries.

According to them, their salaries have not been paid for the past two years, making life unbearable for them and their families.

The Acting Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the GES, Nana Ofori Ansah, speaking in an interview with the Daily Guide on Wednesday in Accra, revealed that due to the decentralization system, processing for the payment of salaries starts at both the regional and the district levels, before they finally land at their respective destinations, hence the delay in the payment of the salaries of some teachers.

He disclosed that most of the teachers take their salaries at the district level, indicating that all their remuneration papers are also processed at the district before they are sent to the headquarters.

He observed that recently an embargo was placed on the recruitment of teachers but it was lifted recently.

He also attributed some of the problems to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) processing forms, adding that there was the need to check every detail vividly before payment starts.

“They just put on the machine two days ago, it’s not intentional that GES has refused to paid them, we have processes and procedure that GES adheres to before their salaries are paid, so the moment one of the structures delays it definitely means payment will be delayed.

Nana Ofori Ansah urged teachers to exercise patience since the GES is doing every thing possible to address the problem in the shortest possible time.