Ex-General Secretary of GNAT denies blowing teachers’ GH¢400,000 provident cash

The immediate past General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr David Ofori Acheampong, has denied embezzling some GH¢400,000 of teachers’ tier-3 (provident fund) contribution.

His denial follows a petition by the National Council of GNAT for accountability with regard to the tier-3 fund of the teachers started by Mr Acheampong in 2019.

The petition, dated 6 April 2021 and signed by the National President of GNAT, said, among other things, said: “Indeed, the attempt to change the GNAT Provident Fund Scheme to Teachers Provident Fund Scheme, to escape good corporate governance practices and accountability to the people, will be resisted with all our might available to us”.

The petitioners said Mr Acheampong announced on Accra-based Peace FM “to the whole country that GNAT used a whopping amount of GH¢400,000 to educate members across the country to join the fund”.

It added: “Indeed, the meetings, membership education, GNAT facilities and all legal fees, were paid for with GNAT membership dues. In effect, over GH¢400,000 of GNAT funds was used to establish the funds”.

However, Mr Acheampong told Kwame Appiah Kubi on Accra100.5FM’s morning show Ghana Yensom on Wednesday, 28 April 2021 that the amount of money paid to start the fund was GH¢45,000.

He, thus, wondered where the GH¢400,000 was coming from.

According to him, all the money paid into the fund passed through the appropriate trustees, adding that he had absolute no control over it.