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GES staff blow GH¢68,700...in Brong Ahafo |
| Some staff of second cycle schools in the Brong Ahafo Region have misappropriated about GH¢68,700 of state funds. |
The amount involved was spent on unsupported payments, outstanding salary advances, payment without receipts, purchases not routed through stores records, non deduction of tax for the Internal Revenue Service among other financial malfeasance.
This came to light when the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament began its second public sitting to consider queries from the Auditor General's Department on Pre- University educational institutions in the country with reports from the Brong Ahafo and Central Regions on Tuesday.
For instance, Kintampo Secondary School, paid GH¢1500 to the then Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports for fifteen computers but a temporary receipt was issued to the school by the Chief Accountant of the Ministry, in contravention of Section 17, Part VI of the financial administration instrument. The report continued that, the possible effect of this anomaly may be the inability of the recipient being able to account for the money.
The committee therefore upheld the A-G's recommendation that management of the school obtains an official receipt from the ministry and that if they fail the chief accountant should be held liable and made to refund the money.
In another incident, the school was reported to have paid an amount totaling GH¢420 to two tutors namely Abakasi James and Jacob Amoako who were on study leave without pay because their names were not deleted from the payroll in a timely manner.
Similarly, an amount of GH¢230, being school fees collected by the Assistant Headmaster to buy foodstuffs in the absence of the Headmaster could not be substantiated with receipts, compelling the A-G to recommend a refund, GH¢50 of which has been paid.
The PAC therefore directed the school to inform the Accountant General so that the Assistant Headmaster, who is now on retirement, be made to pay when he accesses his pension benefits.
Aside their failure to deduct withholding tax of GH¢2600 which could lead to loss of revenue for the state, Dormaa Secondary School also had a string of unsupported payments adding up to GH¢15,400 which had no valid receipts backing them.
Sunyani, Berekum, Koraman and Koase Secondary Schools were all reported to have defaulted by not deducting withholding tax amounting to GH¢4,400. They are also accused of committing other offences such as payments without receipts, purchases not routed through stores, unauthorised payment vouchers and undeserved salaries.
Apart from the offence of financial misappropriation, gross and unwarranted administrative malfeasance which indirectly affects finances were also recorded and reported by the A-G.
Cases of unreturned textbooks loaned out to teaching staff and students who have left their respective schools dating as far back as 1994 and some 25 farm tools loaned out to individuals and the town development committee had not been returned as well.
Though some of the amounts involved in the region were relatively insignificant, the PAC ordered all the schools involved to appear before the committee because, all of them had failed to respond appropriately to the queries raised by the A-G and the PAC.
In a related development, the PAC hearing was yesterday thrown into a state of uncontrollable laughter when a former Accountant of Oti Banka Senior High School told the committee that an amount of money he was alleged to have misappropriated was used as transport fare.
So comical was the incident that the committee’s proceedings had to be halted for about five minutes because the reaction of the committee members to the Accountant’s claim was to laugh their hearts out and exchange bemused glances with other members and the audience.
Lawrence Konutse, former Accountant of Oti Banka Senior High School in the Volta regional town of Dambai was answering questions during the second day of public hearings on the report of the Auditor General on the public accounts of pre-university educational institutions for the four year period ending 31st December 2004.
Asked why he didn’t account for a total of GH¢305.75 when he was the School’s Accountant, Mr Konutse passionately boomed "it was my TNT!," meaning the money was his transportation thus sending the entire house into a euphoric spectacle.
Explaining further, Mr. Konutse said he used the money as imprest which arose when he traveled to Akatsi for auditing and other treasury duties. He however conceded the fact that, what he did was not right and truly regrets the action but had no option since he was being transferred to Akatsi Senior High School.
Not satisfied with the explanation, MP for Ningo- Prampram Enoch Teye Mensah inquired of the relationship existing between himself and the Headmaster and he replied that it was a cordial one.
Another member of the committee, J B Danquah Adu, was alarmed to hear that Mr Konutse is still working within the educational sector and asked why it is so but the Director General of the Ghana Education Service, explained that he was now actually being informed about the issue and that the matter would be referred to the disciplinary committee of the GES to look into so as to mete out the appropriate sanctions if found culpable.
The Headmaster of the school was however not present to testify his side of the matter because he has retired from the service
Again some schools within the Volta and Greater Accra Regions were found to have questions to answer on the expenditure of various amounts totaling a whopping GH¢156,220.
The amounts culminated from unsupported payments, fee arrears, improper payment of salaries and purchases not routed through stores. The rest include uncompetitive procurement practices, gross misapplication of funds, withholding of taxes and abandoned school projects.
Source: The Statesman
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