Shortage of form stalls processing of pension benefits in GES

Ho, April 14, GNA - Processing of pension benefits for 31 teachers in the Volta Region under Cap.30 Pension has been held up for lack of Treasury Form 56 "A" .

These were confirmed by checks conducted by the Ghana News Agency at the Volta Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) following complaints by some of the affected teachers. The teachers, who had worked for between 30 and 40 years, said they were told by officials at the Regional Education Directorate that the forms were unavailable but would be ready to process their benefits for them if they could procure the forms from anywhere. Some of teachers said the forms were unavailable at the Eastern Regional Directorate and the National Headquarters of the GES where they were directed to.

One teacher said she was able to procure the form from the Northern Regional Directorate to file for her benefits.

She said many of her colleagues were unlikely to file for and receive their benefits before they died while others who would be alive would be too weak to pursue their cases and therefore resort to borrowing money. "This is bad for morale in the service," she said. A source at the Regional Directorate confirmed the situation and appealed to the Controller and Accountant General's Department to accept completed applications made on photocopies of the Treasury form 56 "A" to facilitate processing those benefits.

The source showed the GNA a large number of photo copies of the forms which the Controller and Accountant General's Department rejected. The source said in 2004 the headquarters of the GES supplied 500 of the forms to the Directorate which had got finished compelling it to process the benefits using photo-copied forms but they were rejected. The source said the Directorate wrote letters to the Pension and Computation Division of the GES Headquarters for the supply of the originals of the Treasury Form 56 "A" and was yet to receive any response. It said the Directorate also wrote to the Controller and Accountant General's Department on January 6 to allow it to use the photo-copied forms but that Department has also not replied to its request. It also said the Assembly Press in Accra was contacted for original copies of the forms but was told there were none in stock and that orders have to be placed before new ones could be printed. "We are concerned", the source said. Nana Pobee Asomaning Darko, Volta Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, told the GNA that the Association was unaware of the problem. "It is news to me", he said.