The Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education, Okudzeto Ablakwa has revealed that his Ministry has the highest number of ghost names on government\u2019s pay roll.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Government for the People Forum in Koforidua in the Eastern Region, Mr. Ablakwa said \u201c we have also had the opportunity to discover ghosts as usual and I feel embarrassed that my sector has the highest number of ghosts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery now and then we have ghosts that we find but we managed to identify 46,888 ghosts this time around. Some were also people who have left the profession ,” the Minister added.<\/p>\n
Mr. Ablakwa\u00a0was however quick to add that government has deleted those names from the pay roll.<\/p>\n
The issue of ghost names has been lingering for sometime now.<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n In July, the Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD) deleted 3,179 ghost names from the pay rolls of public institutions in Greater Accra alone between April and June.<\/p>\n This was as a result of the implementation of the Electronic Salary Payment Voucher System (E-SPV) system.<\/p>\n Investigations at the National Service Secretariat also revealed that about GHC 7.9 million\u00a0was paid to 22,612 to non-existent national service persons\u00a0i<\/strong><\/span><\/a>n more than 100 districts in July 2014.<\/p>\n Teacher Absenteeism<\/strong><\/p>\n Speaking on the increasing spate of teacher absenteeism in Ghana, the Minister stated that the situation is prevalent in most regions, saying \u201cwhen we went to the Ministry of Education, teacher absenteeism in Ghana was 27 percent. More than a qauarter of teachers don\u2019t show up, they don\u2019t show up at all. That is not acceptable…\u201d<\/p>\n He said the situation compelled the Ministry to set up a committee to address the menace.<\/p>\n \u201cClearly we could not continue with that, so what we did was that my Ministry declared zero tolerance against teacher absenteeism . There was a full blown war.”<\/p>\n In March, the Ministry of Education \u00a0commissioned a committee<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to design modalities for addressing the issue of teacher absenteeism, as part of efforts to effectively implement the policy of Zero Tolerance for Teacher Absenteeism and to increase teachers\u2019 time spent in the classroom.<\/p>\n The committee was mandated to deliberate and submit proposals to address the issue.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Marian Efe Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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