Education explains late payments
The Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture says 3 463 teachers' salaries were not paid on 25 January because of a migration to a new integrated financial management system (IFMS) that was offline for two weeks.
“The transfer/promotion/reinstatement function was inactive for a while after the migration to the new server. This contributed to the delay as we were unable to transfer teachers who got positions in other regions and the receiving regions were unable to request payments on time as the teachers were not appearing on their payroll,” says the ministry's permanent secretary, Sanet Steenkamp.
However, she said by the end of January 2 041 of these teachers were “thought to have been paid” because money was distributed to their respective regions.
Steenkamp said supplementary cheques would be issued to the remaining 1 422 teachers who did not get their salaries in January.
“With that said, the ministry is working very closely with the Ministry of Finance to not only rectify the matter but to also ensure that the affected teachers are paid,” Steenkamp said.
All temporary teachers' contracts had to be renewed for 2017 and they had to be added to the payroll.
“The delays in efficiently adding these newly appointed or the extended contracts depend on the assumptions at school level,” Steenkamp said.
She said temporary teachers' contracts were not extended automatically on the payroll and a verification process was required for teachers changing duty stations.
CATHERINE SASMAN
“The transfer/promotion/reinstatement function was inactive for a while after the migration to the new server. This contributed to the delay as we were unable to transfer teachers who got positions in other regions and the receiving regions were unable to request payments on time as the teachers were not appearing on their payroll,” says the ministry's permanent secretary, Sanet Steenkamp.
However, she said by the end of January 2 041 of these teachers were “thought to have been paid” because money was distributed to their respective regions.
Steenkamp said supplementary cheques would be issued to the remaining 1 422 teachers who did not get their salaries in January.
“With that said, the ministry is working very closely with the Ministry of Finance to not only rectify the matter but to also ensure that the affected teachers are paid,” Steenkamp said.
All temporary teachers' contracts had to be renewed for 2017 and they had to be added to the payroll.
“The delays in efficiently adding these newly appointed or the extended contracts depend on the assumptions at school level,” Steenkamp said.
She said temporary teachers' contracts were not extended automatically on the payroll and a verification process was required for teachers changing duty stations.
CATHERINE SASMAN
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