Principal of the Accra College of Education, Dr. Samuel Atintono, has expressed appreciation to government for its swift response in releasing funds to address the issue of unpaid food suppliers and allowance to teacher trainees.
Dr. Atintono, disclosed that as of yesterday, April 21, 2022 the cheques from government had been disbursed to the Teacher Trainee Colleges across the country which were involved. “We appreciate the prompt response by the government to release the money.”
According to the Principal, there are some students who come to the college and from his stance, if the feeding component is not there, some of them cannot follow through the programme. He indicated that when the allowance is delayed, it affects some of the students because it’s the same money they gather in paying the fees which has a timeline attached to it.
Explaining the colleges mode of business with the suppliers, Dr. Atintono stated that the colleges usually demand goods from the suppliers and negotiate with them and when there is payment from the government, they also pay them.
“So, before the start of the academic year or the semester, we have to do what we call the procurement process. It’s a public process we use. We have to advertise, suppliers will apply and we go through a process to award them the contract. So, per the contract, they are made aware that they will be paid later.”
Dr. Samuel Atintono
Procurement process ideal
The Principal averred that the procurement process has been the norm over the period which he believes is ideal. He stated that when dealing with business men, they want their money as they deliver the goods, but as much as possible, because they know the situation in the country, they are also willing to sometimes do business for one month or three months maximum without pay.
“In this particular case, because we stretched it to 4-6 months, that is why we are having this kind of challenges. So, of course, after 2-3 months there was no payment. They were then threatening that they will not supply and eventually gave us some deadline that we didn’t know what to do. That was the situation of almost all the colleges.”
Dr. Samuel Atintono
Touching on how the allowances are disbursed, he indicated that although the GHS400 is for the students, one part goes to them and the other part goes to the school authorities which is GHS200 each, used for the feeding.
Dr. Atintono lamented about the inadequate infrastructure being a major problem of the colleges across the country. “The infrastructure base of all the colleges is not up to where it should be to support academic work. Nonetheless, the principals are trying to do their best with government.”
Touching on the strike action by the non-teaching staff of the Colleges of Education, Dr. Atintono averred that it was due to some issues within the institution. He explained that there were some changes in the colleges but the salary of the workers weren’t properly done so they had to negotiate for it. “So these negotiations started 3-4 years ago but CETAG got some allowances. So, the non-teaching staff started to negotiate for their colleges.“
Dr. Atintono indicated that Government promised to implement the payment but the implementation delayed that is why they reacted this year again.
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