Members of the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) have indicated they will leave lecture halls next week, despite assurances by the Ministry of Education that payments for Book and Research allowance will begin Thursday.

“The issue is that, by Friday if we don’t receive the [2014/2015] Book and Research allowance, earliest next week, we are going to call for an emergency national committee meeting and we are going to review our actions,” said UTAG President Dr. Samuel Ofori Bekoe.

UTAG called off one-week strike on August 13, following assurances from government that the allowances were going to be paid. But Mr Bekoe said since the suspension of the strike in August, the Education Ministry has not done enough to settle the allowance.

However, the Education Ministry says payments for the book and research allowance for the 2014/2015 academic year is set to begin Thursday.

Public Relations Officer at the Education Ministry Francis Gbadago told Joy News delays in the payment of the university teachers’ allowance are due to auditing of the claims from the various tertiary institutions.

He revealed that some GH$15.9 million have been released to settle the public university lecturers.

“So far the Ministry of Finance has worked on three batches of the audited claims that were submitted to it.  At the moment the Controller and Accountant General’s Department has given the nod for the payment of eleven institutions that fall within the first batch,” Mr Gbadago explained.

Mr. Gbadago urged UTAG to step down threats of strike as efforts are made to facilitate payment.