Finance Ministry needs ‘refresher course’ in own records over GES recruitment – Adutwum’s spokesperson

The spokesperson for former Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum has disputed the Ministry of Finance's claim that thousands of Ghana Education Service (GES) staff were hired in 2024 without financial approval. According to Yaw Opoku Mensah, official records from the Ministry itself show financial clearance was given for the teacher recruitment in 2024.

"The Finance Ministry needs a refresher course in its own records," Mr Opoku Mensah said in response to the Finance Ministry's statement about the recruitment in 2024. The Finance Ministry said that 6,300 GES staff were inherited in 2025 after recruitment without financial clearance. It said approval was given by Cabinet and financial clearance was issued in four parts to solve salary payment issues, and that all 6,300 were paid.

However, Mr Opoku Mensah denied the claim that workers were hired outside financial clearance. "For the avoidance of doubt, not a single person was recruited outside the financial clearance granted in 2024. Every individual recruited had their name and particulars captured on the GES master list," he stated. A financial clearance letter from the Ministry of Finance on May 10, 2024, allowed the Minister for Education to permit the Ghana Education Service to recruit 2,000 graduate teachers to increase staffing.

It also directed the Director-General of GES to process the documents and place the new teachers on the payroll so the Controller and Accountant-General's Department could pay their salaries. The clearance was valid until December 31, 2024. Mr Opoku Mensah said the documents are official records available to the state institutions and can be verified.

"These are not secret documents hidden in someone's bedroom; they are official records that can be verified," he said. He said the previous administration's recruitment was done transparently, with financial clearances and details made public. Mr Opoku Mensah accused the current administration of trying to shift responsibility for salary issues to the previous government.

"You cannot manufacture a problem and then conveniently blame the previous administration for the mess you have created. That is not governance; that is an attempt to run away from responsibility," he said. He insisted the issue was paying legitimately recruited workers. "The facts are available. The records are available. The workers are available.

What is missing is simple: payment," he stressed. The Finance Ministry maintains that all 6,300 GES staff covered under the special arrangement have been paid and advises any worker with unresolved salary or arrears to contact the Ghana Education Service to resolve the payroll or administrative issues.