The Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) says it will finish verifying the promotions of 52,000 teachers next week, clearing the way for the payment of their salary adjustments and arrears.
The Controller and Accountant-General, Kwasi Agyei, in an interview on Eyewitness News on Thursday, October 8, said the Ghana Education Service (GES) has now submitted all the input forms needed for the exercise.
As of 2 p.m. on Thursday, October 8, he said, the department had processed the promotions of all 52,000 teachers on the government payroll system and received the forms to go with them.
“So as we speak now, I just called, and I understand they have submitted all the input forms for the 52,000. So, the input forms and the promotion letters, my team is working on them. We are verifying them, and whatever is verified and validated, as the Deputy Minister said, the intention is to pay on the 15th or before the 16th of October,” he said.
Promotions that were not captured in the current payroll run will not be left out, he added. They will be handled through a supplementary payroll and reflected in teachers’ salaries afterwards.
Background
The move follows a directive from Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu on September 28, asking the Director-General of the GES to send the data on all promoted teachers to the CAGD so that salaries and arrears owed to them could be paid.
Delays in paying promoted teachers were among the issues raised by the teacher unions, namely the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG). The unions went on strike over outstanding promotions, conditions of service and deprived-area allowances.
