GES UNABLE TO PROVIDE DATA ON RETIRED TEACHERS (PAGE 11)

Story: Emmanuel Modey, Hohoe

MANY teachers who retired between 2005 and 2007 have not been able to source their pension benefits.
This is due to the inability of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to furnish the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) with the requisite information on them.
The Deputy Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr James Agyeman Fokuoh, made this known to the Daily Graphic at Hohoe, when the newly elected five national officers of GNAT paid a familiarisation visit to the Volta Region.
They were in the region to update their members on their conditions of service.
According to Mr Fokuoh, currently only five per cent of teachers, for example, had personal files with their employers, GES.
He has, therefore, advised teachers to take a personal interest in their official documents to prevent any problems from occurring during their retirement from active service.
Addressing members of GNAT, the National President, Mr Joseph Kwaku Adjei, said since the association was established some 75 years ago, it had continued to be one of the most vibrant associations on the continent.
Teachers, he said, remained a critical segment of the human resource for economic and political development of the country, so he asked teachers to contact them whenever they did not understand any issue to avert misinformation.
That, he noted, would ensure that they addressed thorny issues which, would in the long run, lead to improvement.
“We see constructive criticisms as positive inputs to re-invigorate the GNAT; so members were invited to submit memoranda to the committee through their district and regional executives,” Mr Adjei said.
The National President mentioned some challenges facing the association as the New Labour Act 2003 (Act 651), the changing composition of membership in terms of age, qualification, levels of operation and their implications for union policies and programmes.
For his part, the Hohoe District GNAT Secretary, Mr Kwabena Bediako, noted that following the introduction of the new Integrated Personnel Payroll Database (IPPD2) system, many teachers had not been able to pay their dues.
In view of that, he advised them to regularise their payments in order to access the benefits of the association.
Earlier in a welcoming address, the Hohoe District Chairman of GNAT, Mr Samuel Alobuia, said some of the common concerns faced by teachers were confusion about their present salary structure, the new pension scheme and the new Education Reform, which had made the classroom teacher technically bankrupt.
He cited others as salary adjustment when personnel were promoted, transfer grants and the delay in accessing deaths and retirement benefits.
The meeting was attended by teachers from the Kpando, Hohoe, Jasikan, Kadjebi and Nkwanta districts.