Concerned Teachers sack president, general secretary for misappropriating GH¢413,988

The Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) has dismissed its President, Mr Ernest Opoku, and the General Secretary, Mr Raymond Boakye Darkwa, for misappropriating GH¢413,988 belonging to the union.

Consequently, the Vice-President of the coalition, Mr King Ali Awudu, and the Deputy General Secretary, Mr Ako Forson, have been asked to step in as President and the General Secretary, respectively.

Addressing a news conference in Accra yesterday, the Chairman of the Disciplinary Committee of the CCT, Mr Samuel Antwi, said the decision was taken at the just-ended National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting held on December 18, 2016.
 
Discoveries
 
Recounting what led to the dismissal of the two leaders, Mr Antwi said the NEC had, in December last year, asked Messrs Opoku and Darkwa to step aside when the internal auditor’s report discovered that funds belonging to the union had been misappropriated.
 
Investigations by an external auditor, he said, confirmed the internal auditor’s report and further revealed that more money could not be accounted for.
 
“Some GH¢369,285.81 is the total sum that cannot be accounted for, while GH¢44,703 cannot be traced to any expenditure, income or account balance,” Mr Antwi added.
 
As a result of the revelation in the external auditors report, he said, the NEC met in April 2016 and proceeded to suspend Messrs Opoku and Darkwa and asked them to refund the money within three months.
 
In June 2016, he said, Messrs Opoku and Darkwa sued the union at an Accra High Court but their case was thrown out by the court.
 
“So now that we have won the case in the court, there is no need for us to hold on to the story but to let the media and the entire Ghana know that Messrs Opoku and Darkwa are no longer leaders of the union,” he said.
 
Mr Antwi said the union would use all legal means to retrieve the money from them and urged all members of the coalition to stay calm.
 
Other issues
 
Touching on other issues, he said the union was prepared to work with the new government to ensure that issues that affected the welfare of teachers, especially it members, were addressed.
 
He denied media reports that the union had given the incoming government a 100-day ultimatum to restore teacher-trainee allowances as promised during the campaign period.
 
“We didn’t give President-elect Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo any ultimatum. We only reminded him of his promises to restore teacher-trainee allowances,” Mr Antwi added.