14 teachers arrested for attempting to defraud Teachers Fund
Fourteen teachers have been arrested by the police for attempting to defraud the Teachers Fund through the electronic payslip (E-payslip) system.
In addition, three other accomplices, including an Information Communication and Technology (ICT) specialist and a graphic designer, have also been arrested for assisting the teachers to engage in the act.
The teachers, who were mostly from rural areas in the Eastern, Western, Central and Brong Ahafo regions, included two females, whose names were given as Anna Krampah and Millicent Asiedu.
The male teachers are Asare Azi Theophilus, Ofosu Afari Sampson, Isaac Donkor, Festus Atsu Abotsi, Oppong Yaw Amponsah and Vincent Ainoo. Others are Adenyo Doe Isaac, Donkor Isaac, Asiedu Millicent, Nathan Sakyi, Ransford Aidoo, Anna Krampah, Daniel Narh and Seth Asumah. The accomplices are Ernest Abaitey, Samuel Martey and Alex Armah Agyemang.
The teachers were said to have manipulated their payslips to enable them to access loans from the Teachers Fund, which they were not eligible to access.
According to the police, a total of GH¢200, 000 was detected as funds which would have been lost to the fraudulent acts.
Manipulating E-payslip
Briefing journalists in Accra yesterday, the Cantonments Police Commander, Chief Superintendent Iddi K. Seidu, said investigations into the fraudulent acts started two months ago when management of the fund detected the alleged fraud.
He said 30 teachers were suspected to be engaged in the act but only 14 had been arrested so far.
The commander explained that the E-payslip was introduced by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department this year to enable workers who drew their salary from the department to access their payslips on line.
He said the Teachers Fund started accepting the E-payslip as part of the application forms.
However, he said the system had made it easier for some teachers to manipulate figures on their payslips and present same in hard copies to the fund to access loans.
Audit
Mr Seidu said when the management of the fund realised the act, their internal audit team conducted an audit.
He said the audit established that some of the teachers had forged their payslips by deleting some commitments which made them unqualified to access the loans.
“A total of 200,000 were detected as loans which had been applied for and would have been lost to the fund but for the due diligence done by the management,” the Commander said.
During investigations, he said, it was revealed that 30 teachers from four regions were involved in the acts. With the support of the police in the various regions, the suspects were arrested.
The suspects admitted committing the offence, he said, adding that they further claimed they were charged fees ranging from GH¢20 to GH¢50 by the graphic designer before preparing the false entries.
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