Some aggrieved teachers in the Bolgatanga Municipality of the Upper East Region have asked leaders of the various Teacher Unions (GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT-GH) to refund their money used in procuring the TMI laptops.
They said the primary role of a Teacher Union is to protect teachers and encourage fairness like that of the role of a soccer referee in a football game, but the various unions’ action on the recent procurement of TM1 Laptops is nothing but greedy and wicked.
At a press conference held in Bolgatanga, they said the primary duty of a teacher union is to ensure their professional developments, therefore, there was no need approaching the government to give teachers laptops.
They said “We don’t need laptops, we need houses, cars, and health care. That should be the over aching question for every teacher union in Ghana. True welfare is not laptops, so withdraw yourself from the deal and refund our money. The leadership of the three teacher unions are undemocratic and unfair to teachers to take this deal behind doors and never sort teachers’ views on the project”.
Below is their press statement
“PRESS CONFERENCE BY BOLGATANGA MUNICIPAL AGGRIEVED TEACHERS
(GNAT, NAGRAT, CCT-GH, ATAG & INNOVATIVE TEACHERS) ON “THE
FRAUDULENT ONE TEACHER, ONE LAPTOP DEAL”
Good morning distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the press. On behalf of my lovely colleague teachers, I wish to welcome you all to this very crucial Press Conference. You should be proud to be here this morning as Ghanaian teachers. I promise you would not regret coming, because we are here to address critical issues of concerns that matter to the Ghanaian pre-tertiary teachers across the nation.
Ladies and gentlemen, teachers as everyone knows, are the country’s intellectual resource, for mentoring, coaching and teaching the next generation of the country. Don’t you think we deserve to be resourceful to deliver effectively? Why would a policeman be given tools to perform his duty but the teacher has to use his money to buy TLMs? A laptop is a basic tool for lesson delivery for 21st-century teachers and should be provided by the employer.
THE MILLIONAIRE TEACHER
President Akufo Addo earlier this year said ‘’we don’t teach to become millionaires’’ if we want to be millionaires, we should do other things’’. Yes, I agree with the President, because no one becomes a millionaire by trading time for money, not just teachers, the vast majority of public sector workers. I want to say that was an eye-opening message for all teachers.
Now, here is the redundant part. We are never ready to allow any Government or teacher union leadership to milk us to become a millionaire. John Dramani Mahama, gave teachers laptops for free, why is Akufo Addo forcefully selling laptops to teachers? If the laptops are compulsory, then it should be free, since it is not our duty as teachers to use our hard earned money to buy TLMs.
If you claim to be promoting and offering free education to Ghanaians, why not free TLMs for teachers to be efficient? We are not saying the Government and the three teacher unions cannot do business with us, but that should be optional and not force brandless laptops on us. If we teachers cannot become millionaires, then no union leader can rob, or scam us to become a millionaire. We want our GHS 509 back now!
ECONOMICALLY UNWISE AND ILLEGAL DEAL
The vice president, his excellency Dr. Mahamud Bawumia is an economist yet went ahead to launch a deal that is financed by our own pension funds. Pension funds are for retirement purposes, and not for laptops.
On top of that, we pay interest for the pre-financing, does this make sense at all? In simple terms, the three teacher unions(GNAT, NAGRAT, & CCT-GH) use our tier two pension funds as loan facilities to procure brandless laptops for us. You can not use our money to fund a project that scores political points to the Akufo Addo-led government while leaving us with zero points for our promotions.
In other words, the PDA is meant for paid workshops to accrue points for our promotions and now those points are stolen by the three teacher unions and the government and
converted to political points known as ONE TEACHER, ONE LAPTOP.
This is an act of criminality. PROJECT. It is a misappropriation of funds and economically unwise to fund the project with pension funds. We don’t need brandless laptops. We need popular brands like HP, Dell, MacBook. GES should refund our GHS 509 now!
GREEDY AND WICKED 3-TEACHER UNIONS(GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT-GH)
The primary role of a teacher union is like the role of a soccer referee in a football game. Making sure there is fair play and players rights are protected. As a welfare union, your role is to protect our interests and ensure fairness in our allowances and salaries. It is never the primary duty of a teacher union to initiate our professional developments, and therefore no need approaching the government to give teachers laptops.
We don’t need laptops, we need houses, cars, health care etc. That should be the over aching question for every teacher union in Ghana. True welfare is not laptops, so withdraw yourself from the deal and refund our money. The leadership of the three teacher unions are undemocratic and unfair to teachers to take this deal behind doors and never sort teachers’ views on the project.
As teachers and very knowledgeable people for that matter, going for such a big contract of
procuring 280,000 for teachers will mean that the said company must have a track record in the public domain as far as laptop productions are concerned. The laptops must be of a good brand that will last for a minimum of 10years. Like Lenovo, Dell, Toshiba etc. Surprisingly, KA Technologies have no such track record in that field. The name is strange to our ears.
Are the laptops certified? We need to be guided by the past so as to make improvements for the better.
COST OF LAPTOP
The cost of the laptop which is Ghc 1,550 including training, maintenance, technical support etc has become camouflage. The inconsistent figures being bundled around raises serious issues of suspicion.
It is now obvious the deal was just for their stomach. What have we done against our Union leaders to deserve such wicked treatment from them aimed at milking the teachers?
CONTROLLER AND ACCOUNTANT GENERAL DEPARTMENT
We are disappointed in the CAGD for going ahead to deducting monies from our payslips without
our consent. The following are questions for the CAGD:
● Can the employer authorize deductions without the consent of the employee?
● Can CAGD effect deductions without a mandate form number from the employee?
● Why is it that GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT-GH members cannot change association in the
e-payslip?
We need freedom of association and we see this move by the CAGD as a sabotage.
ANGEL CARBONU
He has become very arrogant and redundant to teachers in the country. His recent comment suggesting that the Professional Development Allowance is not meant for “Kelewele” is considered a nonsensical statement coming from a Union leader who should know better. We would like to ask him if the Professional Development Allowance was meant for the purchase of laptops? Is the pension money meant to be illegally used for financing companies? He has become a hypocrite as a result of greed.
KING ALI
The leadership of the three teacher unions(GNAT, NAGRAT & CCT-GH) seems to have missed something in their decision to give us brandless laptops and claimed they are pre-program. They want to outsmart all the 280000 teachers. All the materials pre-loaded in the TM1 laptops can even be installed in a smartphone, and therefore pointless.
Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, we want to state that the deal is very fraudulent and that all deductions made should be refunded to us with immediate effect. We will not allow ourselves to be taken for granted by our Union leaders.
Madam Philippa, Mr Thomas Musah, Mr Angel Carbonu and King Ali are the cause of our woes as teachers. We call on teachers across the country to join the fight against our Union leaders as demand for what is due us.
We thank you all for coming. God bless the Upper East, God bless our homeland Ghana.
Thank you.
Signed:
ABUSANG MUMUNI SULE: 0247200452
AYAMGAAYIMBOME RITA: 0549326996
MACDONALD AKOOSE: 0245720949
EMMANUEL ABOYADANA: 0247523270
MOHAMMED AWAL: 0249760734
ADONGO DOMINIC: 0242625069”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1 MHz|Moses Apiah|Bolgatanga|Ghana
