OSP Has No Right To Block Teachers Salaries- GNAT

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has criticized the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) for obstructing the payment of selected teachers across the country, saying it is against the labour law.

The Association is threatening to respond with retaliatory action if the instruction from the OSP is not reversed to make way for the payment of the remaining 404 teachers by the close of Friday, February 16, 2024.

Throwing more light on the situation, the General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah, said some 1, 310 teachers received alerts from their respective banks about the payment of their salaries in January, only for them to receive another communication alerting them about the obstruction of the salaries by the OSP.

Subsequent dialogues led to the release of salaries of 906 of the teachers, leaving out 404 teachers.

The Association posits that it is against the labour law for the OSP to issue such instruction to banks concerning the salaries of teachers.

“The OSP has no business going to instruct the banks that they {teachers} should not be paid. There is no law that gives the OSP that particular right,” he said in an interview on Eyewitness News monitored by opemsuo.com.

“It is important for us to understand that the monies are paid from the Controller and Accountant General’s Department. At the end of every month, you ought to be validated by your head of the institution and once you are validated, it means you have worked for the month and therefore you have been validated and should be paid.

“If there is any questioning or any issue, the validator has to be questioned…so it must start from the director-general because it’s the director-general who is in charge of the agency and together with all the agents. Here we are, the OSP never had any discussion with the director-general, never asked anything from the Regional director or district director and straight to the bank, telling them not to pay the teachers.”

The Association has promised to take retaliatory action if the needful is not done by the end of this week.

“By the close of {Friday}, we are reminding the OSP to do the needful by instructing the four banks to release the monies belonging to the teachers…From next week whatever that happens the OSP must be blamed.”