Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu says the government will pursue supplementary payments for promoted teachers once the Ghana Education Service (GES) completes processing their details.

Speaking during a visit to GES staff working on the data on Sunday, October 4, Mr Iddrisu said the government expects the details of at least 51,000 promoted teachers to be ready for submission to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD).

He said the completed data would enable the government to direct the Ministry of Finance to secure supplementary payment for the first phase.

“At least 51,000 would have been ready; then we can get and direct the Minister of Finance to get a supplementary payment for the first leg of it,” he said.

The Minister also assured teachers that the government’s commitment to settling their outstanding arrears must be honoured.

“It will be inexcusable for government not to honour the payment of the teachers’ promoted arrears by October 30th,” he added.

The GES has been given a 4 p.m. Monday, October 5 deadline to complete and submit the relevant details to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department.

GES Director-General Prof Ernest Kofi Davis told JoyNews on Sunday that officials were working with the Controller’s team to reconcile the data.

He said the Service was targeting between 51,000 and 52,000 promoted teachers and was doing everything possible to meet the deadline.

The teacher unions – the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) – have cited delayed promotions and the payment of outstanding arrears among their concerns in the ongoing industrial action.