The Ghana Education Service (GES)says it is ready to comply with the judgment of the Koforidua High Court as it has already commenced discussion with the parties involved on ways of paying the judgment debt to them.
To this end, the matter has been referred to the Attorney General’s Department in Koforidua, while the service has retrieved all three vehicles impounded on the orders of the court.
The Director-General of the Service, Professor KwasiOpokuAmankwa, who disclosed this to the Ghanaian Times in Accra over the weekend said before 2017, some people were recruited into the service without financial clearance from Ministry of Finance (MoF) and these recruitments were done at the District and Regional offices without recourse to the headquarters.
However, in 2017, upon an appeal to the government through the Minister of Education, the government decided that the appointments should be formalised and the GES through the MoE applied for financial clearance from MoF.
Prof.Opoku-Amankwa said the financial clearance granted by the Ministry of Finance, was with effect from 2017 and as a result, the affected staff were engaged and it was agreed in principle that they could only be paid from 2017 based on the financial clearance.
“All the people involved were therefore issued fresh appointment letters which took effect from 2017. They have since been mechanised and have been receiving their regular salaries,” he emphasised.
He explained that in spite of the agreement some of the affected teachers decided to go to court to claim salaries for work done before 2017.
According to the Director-General, the court upon hearing their case ruled in their favour leading to the seizure of three GES vehicles in Eastern Region, stressing that “GES has since retrieved the three vehicles and discussions are going on as to how to pay the judgment debt.”
A Koforidua High Court last week ordered that a number of vehicles belonging to the service in the Eastern Region be auctioned to settle a judgment debt of GH¢3,471,240.72.
The directive from the court was a result of a case brought before it by 102 teachers in the Eastern Region who were owed salary arrears of more than five years.
The Presiding Judge, Justice GiftyDekyem, directed the Ghana Police Service to detail some personnel to protect and assist the bailiffs to execute the Writ of FieriFacias to the Service in the Eastern Region.
A Toyota Land Cruiser with registration number GC 5985-20 belonging to the Eastern Regional Education Director and a Toyota pickup GV 778-20 belonging to the Regional Accountant were impounded.
BY CLIFF EKUFUL