‘We don’t trust anything gov’t say again’ – GNAT

• Posted on December 9, 2019December 9, 2019
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

Three teacher unions in the country are currently on strike over delay in payment of legacy arrears due them.

The unions: the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) said they will not resume work until they receive their arrears.

Speaking to this in an interview with Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM’s morning show ‘Kokrokoo’, National President, Ghana National Association of Teachers, Ms. Philippa Larsen said: “we don’t trust anything they say again . . . we are really disappointed and so we had to advise ourselves.”

According to her, “we are not resuming work if we are not paid. It is not time for negotiations or discussions . . . in the next meeting we expect to see documents or proofs saying that we have paid this number and so on. Anything short of that we will not go back to work.”

However, the Ghana Education Service in response described the strike as unfortunate because more than half of the beneficiaries have been paid.

The Director-General of the GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku-Amankwah who was speaking on the same platform said, the GES would publish the list of its staff who benefited from the legacy arrears.

Listen to full interviews in the videos below

Meanwhile, the GES in a statement signed by Prof. Opoku-Amankwa, said since 2017, the current government had paid arrears due to those who deserved them, adding that it was significant to note that as of September 2019, about 87,556 members of staff of the GES had been paid their full salary arrears, representing 95 per cent of the total staff validated.

“On November 9, 2019, the management of the GES received another set of data from the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department covering 1,847 personnel who were to be paid the salary arrears,” it said.

Close examination of the data, it said, indicated that anomalies would have led to an excess payment of GH¢11.3 million.

“Some of the personnel were to be paid on undeserved rank. Some of the names had no personal records on the GES payroll from 2012 to 2014 to establish that they could be owed salary arrears over that period.

“Some of the listed personnel were not owed any salary arrears and yet had been credited with huge sums of money, in some cases up to GH¢58,000. Some female personnel were to be paid Night Watchmen allowance when they have never been Night Watchmen within the GES. Some staff who were owed about six months had been credited for only two months,” it said.

-Peacefm