PAY BACK .19,000 Teachers asked to refund overpaid arrears- frontapge headline March 1,

Story: Tim Dzamboe, Ho

About 19,000 teachers who were overpaid salary arrears in January due to data error entry into the national payroll are to refund the amount involved through direct deduction from the February salary.
The system cannot spread overpayment over months because it had been designed to prevent fraud and so those so enjoyed the illegal payment should be well informed of what is ahead of them.
The Controller and Accountant General, Mr Christian Sottie disclosed this at a worker’s durbar at Ho last Thursday.
He said the transfer of the history of workers to the new Integrated Personnel Payroll Database (IPPD) had been completed adding that all arrears accrued to public servants will start by April.
Mr Sottie expressed misgivings on the allegations of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) that the accountant general had diverted the October 2006 salaries of striking teachers into a private bank account.
He said it was malignant on the part of NAGRAT to have made such an unfounded allegation which the potential of tarnishing the image of a highly place public servant for posterity.
He therefore urged the NAGRAT to come out publicly to retract the allegation otherwise the Controller and Accountant General will backlist the association for its services aside of the statutory function of payment of salaries to members.
The Controller and Accountant General told the workers that the department was investigating the software that facilitated the deduction of tax on arrears on payrolls with the assurance that deductions which were not justified will be credited.
He advised public servants to desist from acting arbitrarily on agitations against public officials and their departments because they were all partners, “ we are partners, we work together” saying that the public should appreciate their work and should not insult them.
Mr Sottie admonished MDAs for keying in wrong information on grades, dates of birth and the untimely presentation of budgets and said they were some of the shortfalls that caused unnecessary delay in the payment of some remunerations.
During an open forum, the Volta Regional chairman of NAGRAT, Mr Dan Yorgbe expressed satisfaction on the discourse of the accountant general and assured him that NAGRAT was expected to hold a meeting at which it will consider the issue to retract the malignant statement against him.
Other suggestions include the need for the accountant general to insulate government departments from the frustrations on prefinancing for utility services and more rigid security measures to safeguard the interest of public servants.
The Chief director of the Volta Regional Coordinating Council, Mr Steve Selormey who chaired the function said some departments could not prepay for utilities and that hindered productivity and so the accountant general should tackle the problem seriously with policy makers.
The director in charge of payroll, Mr Daniel Domelevo advised workers to deal only with designated officers without which expectations on their grievances could not be achieved.