GES retrieves seized vehicles, preparing to pay judgement debt

The Ghana Education Service (GES) had three of its official vehicles seized through a court order to be used to defray a judgement debt awarded by the high court against the GES. The court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs (GES staff) leading to the seizure of Three GES Vehicles in the Eastern Region.

The judgement debt was due to the failure of GES to pay some staff of the service whose recruitments were done at the District and Regional offices without recourse to the Headquarters.

GES has since retrieved the three vehicles and discussions are going on as to how to pay the judgement debt.

According to the GES, the plaintiffs in the case were part of those employed prior to 2017 without Financial Clearance from the Ministry of Finance.

While clarifying the issue, the GES disclosed that in 2017, upon an appeal to the government through the Minister for Education, the Government decided that the appointments should be formalised and the GES through the MoE applied for Financial Clearance from MoF.

The Financial Clearance granted by the Ministry of Finance was with effect from 2017 which meant the salaries of the employees in question were not paid for work done before 2017.

“The affected staff agreed in principle that they could only be paid from 2017 based on the Financial Clearance. All the people involved were therefore issued fresh appointment letters which took effect from 2017…They have since been mechanised and have been receiving their regular salaries.” The GES stated in a press release.

In spite of the agreement, some of them decided to go to court to claim salaries for work done before 2017.

Although the GES has since retrieved the three vehicles and discussions are going on as to how to pay the judgement debt, the matter is being handled by the Attorney- General’s Department in Koforidua.