The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has directed the Ministry of Education to take a decision on two retired staff of Sefwi Wiawso Senior High School (SHS) in the Western North Region over their employment status.
The two retirees, Lydia Manso and Elizabeth Opare, both chief cooks attained the compulsory retirement age of 60 in 2022 but still at post.
They had received salaries amounting to GH¢59, 422.00 as at December 2023 contrary to Regulation 92 of Public Financial Management Act, 2016, (Act 921)
The PAC, chaired by Dr James Klutse Avedzi, gave the directive during the committee’s meeting here yesterday.
The three-day PAC sittings at Sunyani in the Bono Region is considering infractions captured in the 2023 Auditor General’s report from five regions: Bono, Ahafo, Western, Ashanti and Western North regions.
Public entities and institutions such as the technical universities, colleges of education among others are expected to appear before the Committee to answer queries before them.
Per the records of the two retirees with the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), they were born in 1962 contrary to their records with their employer – the Ghana Education Service which had their date of birth in 1974 and 1977 respectively.
The Auditor General recommended that the affected workers were to be sanctioned but that directive was yet to be carried through.
When the headmaster of the school, Mr Evans Morgan, was asked why the two retirees remained at post, he indicated that once the Ghana Education Service had not issued a retirement letter to them, he saw no reason to stop them from working.
He added that SSNIT continued to deduct their contributions, even though the two chief cooks were supposed to be on retirement.
The Deputy Minister of Education, Dr Kingsley Nyarko, told the PAC upon query from the chairman that the issue was before the Minister of Education receiving attention.
Dr Avedzi cautioned public and civil servants who were in the habit of forging their ages when seeking employment, to desist from the practice to save themselves from embarrassment.
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, SUNYANI
