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Government has declared its intentions of devising structures that will ensure that new teachers deployed in the public sector are paid in advance.

This was revealed by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Seth Terkper in a joint interview with Citi FM’s Bernard Avle and Radio Gold’s Alhaji Suhini.

Several public sector workers have expressed concerns over the non-payment of their outstanding arrears for some months now.

A teacher in Begoro in the Eastern Region, revealed on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday that he had not been paid in the last ten months.

“When I call them, they tell me that they are working on it.”

Another staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Philip from Suhum in the Eastern Region, complained that he has since October 2012 [when he had his appointment] not received any salary till date.

“The saddest thing is that when you visit their offices, they don’t even care. I’ve worked with the GES close to three years now. So far, I’ve lost count but it’s about two years ten months, and I’ve received nothing. My mother and few benevolent people have been supporting me,” he said.

The Minister has however revealed that government will soon introduce a new system that will address those challenges.

“We are working on putting an HRMI system in place so that everything is done electronically. We are combining the HRMI system with the payroll system and upgrading both to improve the process. We are going to test the system with new teachers posted this year. They are going to be paid in advance,” the Minister said.

He further revealed that though government earlier paid the salaries of some public sector workers while cleaning up its payroll, some salaries might still be outstanding.

He admitted that the challenge of teachers and health workers not being paid has been lingering for years, adding that they [teachers and health workers] are affected most by the development because “their fields see a lot of employment.”

Submit complaints

In a related development, Mr. Terkper has urged public sector workers whose outstanding arrears have not been settled yet to submit their complaints to the district registry.