No financial clearance for your recruitment—Haruna Iddrisu to graduate teachers owed several months

Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu has indicated that graduate teachers who are picketing at the Ghana Education Service over unpaid wages and salaries were not employed through the right channels.

According to him, the previous government employed some 39,000 teachers without any form of financial clearance.

The current government, according to the Minister, is currently engaged in some auditing and will only employ about 12,000 of the 39,000 who have been employed by the previous government after the audit.

“Appointment letters were issued to persons numbering up to 39,000 when there was no financial clearance to do that. That is problematic, so of the 39,000, probably the government may be able to absolve nine, eleven, or twelve thousand, but certainly not 39,000. So whoever misled you, deceived you, is not the John Mahama or Haruna Iddrisu administration.

Somebody deceptively got a number of you unknowingly to yield to some recruitment of a sort, which recruitment was not approved legitimately. We are auditing to know that yes, you have the right qualifications, you are entitled to the appointment, and three you are at post; then, out of you, we will pick what we can absorb within budget. If that exercise is not complete, I have no story to tell you. We have to complete the validation exercise,” he told the picketing Teachers.

These teachers, who have been employed by the government for close to nine months, have been drumming home the need for the government to pay them their salaries.

The group was spotted when the President of Ghana was in the Ashanti Region recently, but he failed to address them as his convoy moved past them.