The President has directed the Finance Ministry to suspend a newly introduced software aimed at managing payroll of the Ghana Education Service (GES) following labour unrest.

The President in a letter said the Finance ministry and the Public Service Commission should resort to using the previous system for the Ghana Education Service in the meantime.

What is HRMIS?

The Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) was introduced by the Public Service Commission in 2012 to harmonise data on government employees in the Ministries, Metropolitan and District Assemblies.

According to the Public Service Commission (PSC), it is difficult to tell with accuracy the exact number of staff in the entire public service because each sector has its own database.

The PSC says HRMIS will provide readily available and accurate data on existing staff to ensure that only active staff who are deployed are paid.

Six public institutions have already been enrolled on the HRMIS as of December 2016.

They are the Public Services Commission, Ghana Statistical Services, Ghana Prisons Service, Office of the Head of Civil Service, Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Local Government Service.

The Public Service Commission has explained the HRMIS is key to eliminating ghost names on the government payroll, significantly reduce salary arears and its attendant costs and also reduce, if not eliminate, labour unrests.

NAGRAT strikes over contentious software

But the HRMIS before it is fully implemented at GES has triggered strike by NAGRAT and six other regional associations of the Ghana National Association of Teachers.

NAGRAT President Angel Carbonu explained since the HRMIS was introduced within the Service in October 2018, it has become a source of frustration for teachers.

‘The nature of the software is making it cumbersome in inputting data that will ensure that payments are done at the right time”, he told JoyNews.

While supporting the goal of eliminating ghost names on the payroll, he said data collection should not delay a teacher’s due compensation.

Angel Carbonu gave an example of the problems encountered in rolling out the system.

“Someone who got promoted in 2018 and was due for retirement in 2019 because of this delays that person could not be put on that right pay scale before retirement so the person retired at his old salary level. This is gross injustice to that person.”

NAGRAT President explained it was going to be easier to introduce the HRMIS in other government institutions because their numbers are very small compared to the Ghana Education Service which employs more than 300,000 members.

NAGRAT reaction to HRMIS suspension

A letter to the Finance ministry from the President’s office acknowledged the unrest and called for the suspension “until all issues relating to its use are resolved.”

Angel Carbonu called the suspension “welcome news” and expressed hope that the moving forward the Public Service Commission will deploy the technology in an efficient manner that does not disadvantage teachers.

The news of the suspension comes as NAGRAT has called off the strike.