Committee to address payroll

THE auto-suspension of teachers from payroll should be a thing of the past, says a senior Education official.
Teaching Service Commission (TSC) chairman Samson Wangihomie told The National that the commission and the department were taking steps to address this issue.
“The Education Minister Jimmy Uguro has directed us and wants to see the suspension of teachers from payroll as the thing of the past,” he said.
“So the department which manages the payroll, and we, who employ the teachers, have met and established a committee that is now working on the terms of reference.”
Wangihomie said the committee would brief Education secretary Dr Uke Kombra and TSC.
He said the committee would look to identify the area that needed to be fixed in the payroll system and recommend action at the policy and legislative level to address the problem.
Wangihomie said the number of teachers suspended from payroll was about 7,000 now, but that number was being reduced as the department worked to reinstate teachers on payroll.
He said the system needed to be reviewed as there were cases of teachers who had died, still on the payroll while others that had been suspended, retired and moved to other employment in the public service were still on the payroll.
“Otherwise, the commission would like to commend the provinces for their resilience and getting all the serving teachers who have resumed to place them back on payroll,” Wangihomie said.
He commended the department staff who had gone out to the provinces to collect the resumption forms and had entered them into the payroll system.
Wangihomie appealed to provinces to send in documents for teachers who had resigned and were being re-admitted and new graduates.