A statistics Officer of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Augustine Mac-Hubert Gabla, has filed a suit at an Accra High Court (Human Rights Division) against the Service and the Attorney General's Department over his dismissal by the District Director “for refusing to condone corruption.”
According to Mr Gabla, the District Directorate of Effutu Municipal Education Office at Winneba, placed an embargo on his salary and dismissed him outright because “I refused to inflate and massage figures for the purpose of attracting a bigger capitation grant.”
Mr. Gabla said ever since he insisted that the right statistical figures be used, he has suffered various forms of abuse of his rights, unlawful transfers and restrained from performing his duties as a statistical officer.
He claimed he had made many attempts, including letters and petitions to the GES and the then Central Regional Director of Education now on retirement, Sarfo Kantanka, seeking redress but nobody ever minded him.
In a suit filed on June 15, at the Accra High Court against the GES and the Attorney General, Mr. Gabla claimed his dismissal was unlawful, capricious and against the fundamental rights to natural justice as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution of Ghana.
In his statement of claim, Mr. Gabla is requesting the court to grant him the following: an order that the said removal from the service is a breach of Article 23, 190(1) (a) and 191(a) and (b) and Article 296 of the 1992 constitution; that the unlawful removal is also a breach of the disciplinary provision in section 19 of the Ghana Education Service Act, 1995 (Act 50; an order to be re-instated in the GES with immediate effect, again an order for payment of all salary arrears due with interest at the prevailing commercial bank rate from December 2013 till date, with various increments and bonuses that may be entitled to him, and legal fees and cost.
In an interview with the DAILY HERITAGE, Mr Gabla said after 19 years of working as a teacher, he rose through the ranks as a classroom teacher, public relations officer and finally statistical officer in charge of collection of data on teachers, pupils, officers and school infrastructure.
He said when the issue came up, a former Regional Director, Mr. Kantanka asked for an audit of the figures submitted by then former Effutu Municipal Education Director, Mrs. Elizabeth Amoako-Enimil, which confirmed that indeed the figure had been bloated.
“Ever since the confirmation, management of Effutu Municipal Education Office never allowed me to effectively perform my duties as a schedule officer, and work meant for me was rather assigned to different officers,” Mr. Gabla complained.
He said on November 22, 2012, the Assembly posted him back to the classroom as a teacher at the Winneba Anglican A/B Primary School to victimize him.
Mr Gabla stated that following an advertisement put up by the Regional Directorate of GES for an Education Management Information System officer for the Ewutu-Senya East Municipality at Kasoa “I applied for the position while I was yet at post as a classroom teacher.
“I was, therefore, surprised that the current Director of GES at Effutu Municipality, Hilda Hagan embargoed my salary in December, 2013 followed by my constructive dismissal,” he recounted.
Lawyer for Mr. Gabla, the Lead counsel of F-X Law Associates, Francis-Xavier Kojo Sosu disclosed that after filing the case, they were waiting for the seven days within which GES will enter appearance. Otherwise, they will seek for default judgment.
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