Ghana’s former Education Minister, Professor Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang says the John Mahama led NDC government paid only 3 month’s salary to some teachers because they were not employed by the government.
Prof Jane Naana speaking on Accra-based Joy Prime in an interview said such teachers despite claims they worked for over a year were employed by headmasters and headmistress of various schools and not the government.
Naana furthered that the appointment letters given to the teachers by the District Education Service were not endorsed by the Education Ministry, a situation she said could not guarantee payment for their work done.
“There were times when I went to the field there was a case in point, I think it was a small school in the Upper East and there was this young man who approached and said he had taught for years and had not been paid. So I wanted to see his letter of appointment, he didn’t have any. So how did he get in? Because the headmaster said he should come and teach and when the opportunity comes, they would employ him. Headmasters don’t employ. And it wasn’t the only story. There were too many of them going around.”
The NDC Vice Presidential Candidate said the complaints made her informed the Finance Ministry of the situation and was told only the Ministry of Finance was ready to pay only three months salary.
“So when we made the report to the Finance (Ministry), I said the situation was very bad. They said, okay, they would pay them 3 months immediately. They will do validation and they will go case by case. And I was interested in finding out administratively what could have gone wrong for such a situation to arise.”
The leading member of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) said the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), however, took advantage of the situation and painted her party black and told teachers untrue stories.
