The association is asking the Controller and Accountant Generals Department to rescind its decision
The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) is demanding the immediate reversal of a policy directive by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to stop paying salaries of the public sector if they do not possess Ghana cards.
President of the Association, Angel Carbonu, said the directive which gives public workers up to the end of November to acquire Ghana Cards without which their salaries will not be paid, does not sit well with members.
He said the action in itself is “contrary to the practice we have known all these years”.
The Association is thus calling on the Controller and Accountant General’s Department “to withdraw the statement and do the needful by engaging public sector workers and discussing the issue with them so that we all arrive at a common ground.”
Mr. Carbonu said the move is not supported by law.
“We have signed a condition of service with the various services and there is nowhere in our constitution that states that if you don’t have a Ghana card ID number then you will not be paid. So, we don’t even know the source of the Controllers authority in taking this determined position”, he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Secretary-General of Trades Union Congress (TUC), Joshua Ansah, in an interview on 3FM’s Sunrise on Thursday said also said: “it is very very unfortunate that the controller will sit and make such decision”.
“The laws governing salaries must be respected and TUC says no-no to it and we are calling the Controller to do the needful”, he told Sunrise Host, Alfred Ocansey on Thursday.
Mr. Ansah explained that “doing the needful means that all the stakeholders must be brought on board to decide on the issue because Accra and Kumasi are not only Ghana. We have remote areas”.
“I don’t want to believe it. They must do the needful by calling on the labor unions and talk about it because it is a good thing but the wrong approach”.
Labour unions in Ghana including NAGRAT, GNAT and TUC have said they were not consulted in the decision by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) to stop the salary payment of government workers if they do not possess a Ghana card by December 1.