By Adovor Nutifafa

A staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the Amansie West District in the Ashanti Region (name withheld for now) has alleged that GES Coordinators in the District extort money from new entrants into the Service before processing their Integrated Personnel Payroll Database(IPPD) forms at GES Head office in Accra. This practice, according to the staff, has led to the delay in the payment of their salaries, culminating in the lowering of productivity and morale among the ranks of the workers.

He said there is uneasy calm cum fear of intimidation hanging over the GES in the area as workers were afraid to complain for fear of losing their job. According to him, those who muster courage to complain are greeted with strange reaction from the authorities that, “other people have spent two to three years in the Service without salary and you have spent a year without pay and you are complaining and making noise.”

The whistleblower said he got his appointment letter a year ago but has still not been paid his salaries, adding that, “your forms are fast-tracked depending on the amount of money you make available to the coordinators.”

He pointed out that those who pay more to the coordinators are currently receiving the salaries; hence the sector is becoming a playing field for the highest bidders.

According to him, the defense the IPPD coordinators put up when they are confronted is that it is government’s policy to delay payment of salaries to new entrants into the Service because the requisite funds are not available. But he alleged that when you bribe them or enter in what he describes as “good financial negotiation” with them you get paid the following month.

He indicated that those who do not have the requisite financial muscle abandoned their post and the Service in frustration, adding that for the category of workers who abandoned the Service in a dramatic turn of event, forms are processed while unnamed individuals pocket their salary.

He also alleged that the authorities use particulars of some national service persons serving in schools in the District to employ other workers without their knowledge. This practice, according to him, is increasing and promoting the phenomenon of ghost names in the Service.

He explained that currently, there are thousands of unprocessed IPPD forms gathering dust at the IPPD Head Office in Accra waiting for financial inducement before they are worked upon.

He is making a passionate appeal to the Minister for Education, Mr. Lee Ocran, and other relevant authorities to investigate the matter to avert the increasing rate at which workers are leaving the Service in frustration, compounding the already low staff rate in the Service.

He stated that because of the frustrations in the Service, he is now seriously hunting for a new job elsewhere.

Source: The Citizen Newspaper (thecitizen.news@yahoo.com) +233 27 731 4655