Yesterday a Koforidua High Court ordered the auctioning of management of Ghana Education Service properties to offset judgment debt of over GH¢ 3.5m of teachers salary arrears.
The Regional Director of Education and his Accountant Car were seized by police. But the Ghana Education Service in a statement has raised 10 major points on this Court issue of nonpayment of teachers’ salaries.
According to GES before 2017, some people were recruited into GES without Financial Clearance from the Ministry of Finance. These recruitments were done at the District and Regional offices without recourse to the Headquarters. This means that the headquarters of GES was not aware of the said recruitment.
GES again said in 2017, upon an appeal to the government through the Minister for Education, the Government decided that the appointments should be formalized and the management of the GES through the Ministry of Education applied for Financial Clearance from the Ministry of Finance.
This Financial Clearance granted by the Ministry of Finance for the affected teachers was to take effect from 2017.
The management of the Ghana Education Service further explained that the affected staff agreed in principle that they could only be paid from 2017 based on the Financial Clearance.
GES then said that all the teachers involved were therefore issued fresh appointment letters which took effect from 2017. These Teachers According to GES have since been mechanized and have been receiving their regular salaries.
GES explained that despite the agreement some of them decided to go to court to claim salaries for work done before 2017. The court ruled in their favour leading to the seizure of three GES Vehicles in the Eastern Region.
Management said they have since retrieved the three vehicles and discussions are going on as to how to pay the judgment debt. The matter is being handled by the Attorney- General’s Department in Koforidua.
Meanwhile, the management of the Ghana Education Service is promising the general public that a full and detailed statement on the matter will be issued in due course