Newly posted teachers’ salary delay caused by GES, CAGD & bureaucracy -Kofi Asare of Eduwatch

The Africa Education Watch boss, Mr. Kofi Asare has laid the delay in newly posted teachers’ salaries at the doorsteps of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Accountant General’s Department (CAGD), The Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, and the bureaucracy infested process for processing.

In a Facebook post, he questions the reasons why the over 20 years of bureaucracy that has characterized the process of getting teachers their Staff IDs and the subsequent delays in enrolling these teachers onto government payroll.

“So what at all is this bureaucracy that delays the payment of a newly posted teacher’s salary for 6 months or more that cannot be solved? He quizzed.

He added that the delays in processing the salaries of newly posted teachers in Ghana is poor given that in other part so of Africa. It takes a month for a teacher’s salary to be prepared and paid for the first time, between 1 and 3 months.

“Why do newly posted teachers in South Africa receive salary in month 1; Kenya, Sierra Leone by month 3, and yet in Ghana, the gateway to Africa, over 6 months?”

“In Kenya for instance, as soon as the receiving school principal files returns to the Teacher’s Service Commission acknowledging posting and receipt of the new teacher, salary arrives; and this does not take more than 3 months” He added.

According to him, in the past, the salaries of public sector workers took a year to get paid however, he added he was not ready to accept a 6-7 months delay because the country has made so much progress which should ensure the bureaucratic impediments are eroded from the salary processing for newly posted teachers.

“While I appreciate salaries used to delay for a year in the past, I refuse to accept 6-7 months as the progress we must be comfortable within 2022.” Can’t we devolve this IPPD thing?” He quizzed

“What at all is this problem? Ghana Education Service Controller & Accountant General’s Department, Ghana. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum. We have been discussing this thing for over 20 years now, ooo.”

To drive home their call, #PayNewlyPostedTeachersNow has been trending on social media for the past 48 hours as Newly Posted Teachers who reported to their various posts in February wait for the government to pay them. The teachers have been at post for seven months without their pay since the GES has not facilitated their Staff ID numbers which will help them enrol on government payroll.

According to some newly posted teachers, they are in debt as they keep buying food and other essentials on credit only to survive. Many of them are now in debt as a result of the failure by the GES to expedite action on the processing of the Staff IDs of the teachers.

The tweets sighted by Ghana Education News read

“We’re suffering, We’re in debts, release our staff IDs, pay our 7 months arrears”

Until the teachers have access to their Staff IDs, they will continue to be in their current condition, which may even worsen.

READ: WASSCE 2022 Dos and Don’ts for School Candidates -Take Them Serious

In a related development, the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has called on the Ghana Education Service to take proactive steps to deal with the bottlenecks that confront the processing of Staff IDS for newly recruited teachers. Without the Staff IDs, the teachers cannot get migrated onto the government payroll for their salaries. The teachers have complained of the hardship they have been going through in the last 14 days.

[wp-rss-aggregator]