Two GES officials busted for illegally recruiting 100 teachers
The ongoing verification and validation exercise for staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has led to the arrest of a headmaster and an official of the GES at New Edubiase in the Adansi South District in the Ashanti Region.
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The District Coordinator of the School Health Education Programme (SHEP), Robert Nyame, and the Headmaster of Adansi Anwiaso DA Junior High School, Nana Ernest Appiah Antwi-Boasiako, are currently in the custody of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for the various roles they played in the recruitment of more than 100 teachers in the district from 2010 to 2012.
Antwi-Boasiako is alleged to have done the recruitment, demanding from the recruits charges ranging from GH¢100 to GH¢250, while Nyame charged GH¢40 as processing fee.
At the time of the recruitment, Nyame was said to be the Director of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Database (IPPD) at the Adansi South Education Directorate before he was re-assigned as head of the SHEP.
Sources at the BNI told the Daily Graphic that Nyame, after collecting the processing fee of GH¢40, also charged the new teachers between GH¢1,000 and GH¢2,000 to input their data into the IPPD system to enable them to receive their salaries.
Nyame is reported to have refunded the money paid by 70 of the affected teachers after he was busted.
The sources explained that Nyame and Antwi-Boasiako were arrested for illegal recruitment and charging illegal fees.
Some of the verification forms filled by teachers which are yet to be validated
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Names deleted
The sources said with about 15 per cent of the verification and validation work done, 3,000 names had so far been deleted from the government payroll.
Those whose names had been deleted included personnel on retirement, those with fake certificates and those who had resigned or vacated their post and yet were still receiving salaries.
According to the sources, there were instances where some ‘teachers’ were not physically present, but their names were deleted after further investigations showed that they did not exist.
Out of the more than 3,000 names deleted, the sources said, only 20 had shown up to fill the verification and validation forms.
In March this year, the BNI directed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to delete the names of 610 members of its staff from the government payroll.
The staff, mostly teachers who were found to have vacated their post, resigned, were non-existent, deceased, dismissed or could not be traced or located, were still receiving salaries.