Teachers Impound 24 GES Vehicles Over Ghs3 Million Unpaid Judgment Debt

Twenty-four (24) GES Vehicles impounded by aggrieved over unpaid judgment debt is the latest education news.

The impounding of the vehicles was initiated through a writ of fieri facias which was granted to the applicants (aggrieved teachers) by the High Court in Koforidua.

The action was brought against the GES as it failed to pay Ghc3,471,240.72 judgment debt.

The impounding was led by a sheriff to enforce the order of the court. This saw the official vehicles of the Regional Sports Director at GES, the Eastern Regional Education Director, New Juaben South Education Director, and some Senior High School vehicles being taken over.

The teachers succeeded to get the writ after the Ghana Education Service failed to do what was necessary after an earlier judgment was passed.

Its failure to honour its obligation contained in the earlier judgment led to the action by the teachers.

A similar exercise according to our source took place in February this year which led to the impoundment of the official vehicles of the Eastern Regional Director of Education and the Regional Accountant of Ghana Education Service as well as that of the Birim South District Director of Education.

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The legal battle ensued in 2017 after some 102 teachers whose salaries had not been paid for between three and four years took the issue to the court

A judgment debt was slapped on the Ghana Education Service by the Koforidua High Court which was then presided by supervising high court judge, Justice Gifty Dekyem (Mrs).

The judgment given on December 18, 2020, entered a judgment of Gh3,471,240.72 including costs and interest against GES to be paid to the plaintiffs.

The GES did not take steps to pay the judgment debt, hence forcing the plaintiffs to secure a writ of fieri facias to impound vehicles of GES including Administrative vehicles in good condition and buses of some Senior High Schools.

One of the plaintiffs, Effah Darko, told Starr News, “we are about 102 teachers, and we worked from 2011. We worked for three and four years, it was only in 2016 that the government started to pay us without paying those arrears. We wrote petitions to other stakeholders for the arrears to be paid, but they refused to pay. So our last option was to get a lawyer to fight for us. We went to court in 2017 we had a judgment in 2020, but after the judgment government is refusing to pay the money for almost a year now. So the option left for us is to confiscate the properties of our employer to auction them to settle the debts”

He continued “We have impounded the vehicles of the Regional Director and the Regional Accountant, they are now at the forecourt of the High court. We also impounded the Birim South District Director’s car, but the director and driver run away with the keys, so we are now planning to tow away the car to the High Court in Koforidua”