The management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has cautioned that under no circumstance should a validator should refuse to validate any staff on the basis of any other reason apart from those contained in the guidelines.
A statement signed by the Deputy Director-General of GES, Anthony Boateng, and sighted by Educand Ghana Network reveals the attention of Management of Ghana Education Service has been drawn to several reports of some staff having their names going off the payroll. In some instances, it is alleged that the names have gone off due to non-validation by accredited validators of such staff purely as a punitive measure on the basis of personal disagreements or differences.
According to the GES, it still appreciates the valid reasons for the non-validation of staff under the various circumstances as indicated in the guidelines for validation of salaries and fully endorses them and urges the various validators to ensure strict compliance with those guidelines.
On the other hand, management is worried about some of the reasons assigned for some instances of non-validation, especially where these non-validations are based on personal differences involving the validator or uninvestigated allegations.
To deal with issues of abuse of the principle of validation of salaries, it is hereby directed that, henceforth, no validator should refuse to validate any staff on the basis of any other reason apart from those contained in the guidelines.
Where a staff member’s salary should be blocked or not validated, for any other reason not provided in the guidelines for salary validation, there should be an express authorization by the District/Regional Director or the Director-General. This includes where such recommendations are based on investigations or disciplinary committees at all levels.
However, where the reasons are based on the validation process guidelines, the validation officer who refuses to validate a staff member must immediately make a formal report to the Regional/District Director or the Director-General, as the case may be.
Under no circumstance should any schedule officer arrogate to him/herself the authority not to validate the salary of any staff member, where the reason for the non-validation is not in the guidelines for the validation. It will equally amount to misconduct for any validator to refuse, fail, and/or neglect to make a report on the non-validation of the salary of any staff member to the accredited officer, as indicated. immediately after such non-validation.
Any staff member whose salary is not validated for any reason and who feels aggrieved by any such non-validation should be reported to the appropriate quarters within the GES for investigation.
Therefore, all cost centre managers are to ensure strict compliance with these directives forthwith.
No validator should refuse to validate any staff-GES Cautions
