The Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) said on 27 September 2026 that 52,541 promoted teachers have not received new salaries because the Ghana Education Service (GES) has not sent their paperwork.
In a statement, CAGD said it had received completed forms and promotion letters for only 6,079 of the 58,620 expected cases as of 22 September, about 10 percent. It said every one of those teachers was paid, with arrears, in September salaries. “CAGD has processed every valid case received from GES,” the department said.
The statement shifts the spotlight to GES days before the end of September, the deadline the government agreed with teacher unions for placing all promoted teachers on their new salary grades. Nearly nine in 10 affected teachers are still waiting, and the unions have already threatened to strike over the issue.
How the payroll works
CAGD said promotions pass through two systems. The employer, in this case GES, starts the change on its Human Resource Management Information System. It then sends CAGD a completed input form and the promotion letter, and CAGD validates them on its own payroll database. CAGD said those documents are required to stop fake promotions, unauthorised pay rises and irregular payments. Until they arrive, salary changes stay on hold.
The current process was agreed at a meeting on 31 August 2026, chaired by Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu and attended by union leaders and officials from GES and CAGD. GES was to supply a master list of promoted staff, with their letters and input forms, so that arrears backdated to 1 January 2026 could be paid.
Unions losing patience
The dispute has been running for months. The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) set GES a deadline of 7 September to complete outstanding placements, warning of industrial action. The planned strike was suspended after the 31 August meeting, and unions said the government had committed to placing all affected teachers by the end of September.
On 22 September, the unions issued an urgent notice giving the government until midday on 24 September to resolve the outstanding promotion pay and arrears. They said the delay breached the agreement and had caused anger among teachers.
CAGD said it had noted recent statements by GNAT, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers’ Association of Ghana (PRETAG) about the delays. It urged stakeholders to avoid comments that could cause public anxiety or misrepresent its role, and said it would pay every legitimate claim once the documents were submitted and validated.
GES had not publicly responded to CAGD’s statement by the evening of 27 September.
