PERMANENT Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Vibert Welch, has said that there is no policy to withhold teachers’ pay when they travel overseas on vacation, contradicting comments by the Regional Executive Officer of Region Five, Ovid Morrison, who had said this is a custom.

Welch made the comments when he appeared before the Public Account Committee (PAC) on Monday. He was at the time being grilled, based on the Auditor General’s report for the year 2015. Welch said that teachers who are proceeding on leave during the July-August school break will not see changes in their salaries, as the ministry has no such policy.
He was at the time responding to queries related to the overpayment of net salaries during the period 2010 and 2015. PAC member Juan Edghill questioned, “If somebody is going on vacation leave, what is the policy?” The PS responded, “They get their salaries…there are no pay changes.” With the intent of being clear on the matter, Edghill asked the PS if the same situation applies for those teachers who are proceeding on Whitley Council leave. Welch’s response remained unchanged. “If they are going overseas on leave, what is the policy?” asked Edghill to which Welch responded, “If they are going on overseas, obviously they would have had permission to travel overseas, we don’t withhold salaries or anything for them.”

As such, the PS made it clear that his ministry has no policy requiring an adjustment in salaries for teachers who intend to travel during the two-month break. Last week, Region Five teachers protested against the regional administration when they were informed that the region would be withholding three months’ salary from them should they proceed overseas while on vacation.
However, that matter has since been settled during a meeting with Minister within the Ministry of Education Nicolette Henry and senior officers of the Ministry of Communities ,who had travelled to the region and union representatives in the boardroom of the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) at Fort Wellington, West Coast Berbice, on Friday.

Regional Executive Officer Mr Ovid Morrison had told the Guyana Chronicle on Friday that there was a misconception and there was never an intention to withhold three months salaries from teachers, but only one month, which has been the custom over the years.
“They were told that if they go on vacation leave in July and August, then only the June month salary will be held. They will have access as always to their July and August month salaries and on resumption of duties, then June month salary will be released. There was no intention to change anything from the way it has always been. It was just that the teachers misunderstood what was verbally communicated to them and became annoyed and resorted to protest action,” he said.

Morrison said too that the administration had revived the measure because of the huge sums of money overpaid to teachers who leave the country for vacation and do not return. He disclosed that these teachers leave in July and then access their salaries for June, July August and September, knowing that they had no intention of returning.
He said too that as at 2015, some $85M had been overpaid to such persons and for 2016 at least $1.3M in overpayments had been discovered to date in an ongoing investigation aimed at addressing financial irregularities that have been highlighted by the Auditor General and raised by the Public Accounts Committee.

But on Monday, PAC Chair Irfaan Ali refuted the statement made by Morrison and noted that the PAC cited the overpayment at $2.9M and not $85M. Meanwhile, Welch has attributed the overpayment to head teachers not communicating to the Ministry of Education in a timely manner, those teachers who would be proceeding on maternity leave. He explained that a system has been implemented to ensure the timely communication of such information to the salaries unit of the ministry to avoid overpayment of teachers. The ministry is expected to pay 30 per cent of the teacher’s salary while the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) pays the remainder.

“What is the current policy to ensure that there is no overpayment to that staff while on maternity leave?” asked PAC Member Edghill. Welch noted in response that head teachers are implored to submit the records of persons going on leave well in advance so that changes could be effected.
According to the Auditor General’s report, deductions totalling $2.209M have still not been recovered. As a result, the Audit Office recommended a review of the system to ensure that the measures in place are updated to provide more effective, efficient and timely advice to the Central Accounting Unit.

Since the release of the AG’s report, the ministry had published the names of the officers overpaid in the daily newspaper and the sum of $601, 067 was recovered from 17 persons for the years, 2010 to 2015. Adjustments were made on the 2016 payroll to the tune of $2.209M for officers who were on maternity leave and the sum of $30,000 was recovered and deposited into the Consolidated Fund.