The Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) has confirmed it has paid all 6,079 teacher promotion cases submitted by the Ghana Education Service (GES), amid concerns from teacher unions about delays in adjusting salaries. This update came in a press release dated September 27, 2026, after the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers’ Association of Ghana (PRETAG) raised alarms about the slow processing of promoted teachers’ pay.
CAGD explained that Ghana’s payroll operates on two main platforms. The Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) is managed by employers like GES, which initiates promotions. The Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database 2 (IPPD2), managed by CAGD, validates and processes payments. For a promotion to translate into a pay increase, GES must send a completed input form and the official promotion letter to CAGD for validation.
“These documents are not mere administrative formalities,” the statement said. “They are essential for payroll validation and are designed to prevent fictitious promotions, unauthorised salary adjustments, and irregular payments.”
The current arrangement follows a meeting on August 31, 2026, chaired by the Minister of Education and attended by the Deputy Minister of Education, teacher union representatives, and officials from GES and CAGD. At that meeting, it was agreed that GES would provide CAGD with a master list of promoted staff, their promotion letters, and completed input forms. These were necessary to process promotion arrears effective January 1, 2026.
As of September 22, 2026, CAGD said it had received 6,079 completed input forms and promotion letters from GES out of an expected total of 58,620 cases. This represents about 10 percent of all promotions. The department said it had fully processed and paid all these cases, including any arrears, as part of the September 2026 salary cycle.
“It must therefore be emphasised that CAGD has processed every valid case received from GES,” the statement read. “Any outstanding payment therefore relates to cases for which GES is yet to submit the requisite documentation for validation and processing.”
CAGD stressed that it cannot process salary adjustments without the required documents from GES, and transactions remain suspended until those documents arrive.
The department said it remains open to working with the Ministry of Education, GES, the teacher unions, and other stakeholders to resolve genuine payroll issues through due process. It urged all parties to avoid statements that might cause public anxiety or misrepresent CAGD’s role in payroll administration.
CAGD also acknowledged the contribution of teachers to national development and assured them that every legitimate payment due would be made once the necessary documentation was submitted and verified.
The unions’ complaints had sparked concerns among teachers across the country who were expecting back pay and adjustments on their new salary scales. The confirmation that all cases received have been processed leaves the delay squarely on the side of GES to submit the remaining documents.
With only a tenth of promotion cases submitted for payment so far, the backlog remains large. How quickly GES completes and forwards the rest will determine when the majority of promoted teachers will see their adjusted salaries reflected.
As the payroll process depends on both employer initiation and CAGD validation, the two agencies will need to coordinate closely to clear the pending cases. The latest update clarifies that CAGD is not the bottleneck in the current delays.
This situation highlights the administrative challenges in managing payroll for tens of thousands of public sector workers. The call for collaboration among all stakeholders suggests the process will require sustained effort to avoid further hold-ups.
According to 3News.
