15,000 newly trained teachers to receive salary by May – GES

The more than 15,000 newly teachers who have been employed by the Ghana Education since 2010 and have not received their salary would be paid by May.

Mr Michael Kofi Inkoom Director of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Database (IPPD) Unit of the Ghana Education Service (GES) made this known on Monday during a two-day forum organised by the Controller and Accountant –General’s Department (CAGD) in Cape Coast.

The programme which was attended by more than 500 participants drawn from all the districts in the region included heads of department, district chief executives, district coordinating directors and accountants from the Ministry of Health and the Ghana Education Service.

It was geared towards educating the participants on the processes involved in administrating the mechanised payroll, the background to the Single Spine Pay Policy, payroll issues as well as to take stock of complaints on the implementation of the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).

Mr Inkoom attributed the delay in the payment of the newly trained teachers to the implementation of the SSSS, which resulted in numerous interruptions and demands from trades unions and other institutions thereby slowing down the processing of the salaries of the affected teachers.

He said in addition more than 21,000 teachers and other GES staff have been promoted and upgraded but had not been paid their rightful salaries and arrears.

Mr Inkoom gave the assurance that the situation would be addressed.

He said his outfit had negotiated with the CAGD to allot more days to enable the IPPD to assess the payroll systems to help clear the backlog of the newly trained teachers.

Mr Inkoom appealed to the newly teachers and other affected persons to exercise patience.

Mr Peter Dery, Coordinating Director of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly who presided, urged the participants to take the forum seriously and come out with recommendations and suggestions that would help address the problems facing the implementation of the SSSS.

Source: GNA