Committee on impropriety submits report to assembly

New Edubiase (Ash), April 3, GNA - The committee appointed by the Adansi South District Assembly to enquire into allegations of impropriety levelled against the District Director of Education says it has uncovered some irregularities at the district directorate. The committee mentioned the capitation grant, recruitment of untrained teachers and the reshuffle at the district education directorate as some areas where irregularities were found. The report of the five-member committee chaired by Mr Edward Baffour Awuah, an assemblyman, said it came to light during the enquiry that enrolment figures in some schools were inflated in view of the introduction of the capitation grant.

It said for instance that the enrolment figure for the New Edubiase D/A primary school was bloated from 239 pupils to 405, while that of the Atobiase Catholic primary school rose from 334 to 344. The enrolment figure for Fahiakobo D/A primary school was raised from 109 pupils to 201 pupils while that of Kofi Gyaame D/A primary school also rose from 64 pupils to 81 pupils and that of Grumasa D/A primary school shot up from 153 pupils to 240 pupils.

The report which has been presented to the district assembly said the committee discovered that while the day-care centre at New Edubiase still remained the bonafide property of the 31st December Women's Movement, the District Director of Education transferred a female teacher from Tonkoase Number One D/A primary school to the centre. The committee therefore, asked that Miss Cecilia Yeboah, who was transferred from Tonkoase to the centre should be withdrawn and posted to a public school immediately.

The report said it was established that some money changed hands between some of the applicants for the recruitment of volunteer teachers under the Youth Employment Programme between some of the applicants and Mr Dominic Dex, who was in-charge of the programme and that this made him change the final pass list several times.

By this, the committee said, the names of those who wrote the examination were deleted from the list.

It said Mr Dex was asked to co-ordinate the programme for the Untrained Teachers Diploma in Basic Education (UTTDBE) as his sole duty at the district directorate of education, he collected money from eight candidates.

The report said instead of 240,000 cedis which was supposed to be paid by the untrained teachers for their three weeks stay at the Akrokerri Training College for books, he collected extra 315,000 cedis from them for boarding and lodging.

The committee said when Mr Dex was quizzed, his explanation was that he did not know that he was not supposed to take money for boarding and lodging and that he was prepared to refund the extra money he took. The report said a careful study of a reshuffle the district director made turned out to be demotion exercise for most of the affected staff and cited the case of Mr Amoasi Takyi of the Human Resource Management and Development Unit who was alleged to have taken money from a female teacher.

It said when Mr Amoasi Takyi and his immediate boss were asked to confirm or refute the allegation, they said Miss Millicent Tabi, the female teacher in question was credited with about 2.5 million cedis in her accounts.

Instead of refunding the whole amount, she refunded only one million cedis with the explanation that she would refund the rest later, which she failed to do.

The committee recommended that external auditors be engaged to look into the issue of the capitation grant and also asked the District Director of Education to relate cordially with all the staff at her office so long as she continues to work in the district.