GES retrieves vehicles seized over judgment debt

The official Vehicles of the Eastern Regional Director Education and the Regional Accountant of Ghana Education Service as well as that of the Birim South District Director of Education were seized to defray GHC3.4m judgment debt.

The vehicles were impounded by a bailiff to defray a judgment debt of Ghc3,471,240.72 awarded against the service by the Koforidua High Court.

GES and Attorney General were sued in 2017 by 102 teachers across the country over non-payment of salary arrears for three and four years.

The Koforidua High Court presided by supervising high court judge Justice Gifty Dekyem (Mrs) in December 18,2020 entered the judgment of Gh3,471,240.72 including costs and interest against GES to be paid to the plaintiffs.

However, after a year of the judgment, GES has failed to pay the judgment debt forcing the plaintiffs to execute a writ of fieri facias to impound vehicles of GES including Administrative vehicles in good shales and buses of some Senior High Schools.

Reacting to the situation, the GES in a statement signed by its Public Relations Office, explained that the development was concerning recruitment and salaries, and despite the agreement reached by the aggrieved employees they still decided to go to court.

“The court ruled in their favour leading to the seizure of Three GES Vehicles in Eastern Region. GES has since retrieved the three vehicles and discussions are going on as to how to pay the judgment debt,” the GES disclosed.

It added that the matter is being handled by the Attorney- General’s Department in Koforidua.

Below is the statement from the GES

RE: GES VEHICLES SEIZED FOR NON PAYMENT OF SALARIES

Before 2017, some people were recruited into GES without Financial Clearance from Ministry of Finance. These recruitments were done at the District and Regional offices without recourse to the Headquarters. In 2017, upon an appeal to government through the Minister for Education, the Government decided that the appointments should be formalised and the GES through the MoE applied for Financial Clearance from MoF. The Financial Clearance granted by the Ministry of Finance, was with effect from 2017.

The affected staff 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. In spite of the agreement some of them decided to go to court to claim salaries for work done before 2017.

The court ruled in their favour leading to the seizure of Three GES Vehicles in Eastern Region.

GES has since retrieved the three vehicles and discussions are going on as to how to pay the judgement debt.

The matter is being handled by the Attorney- General’s Department in Koforidua. Full and detailed statement on the matter will be issued in due course.

SIGNED PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICE GES