A committee set up investigate the issue implicated the Financial Secretary of the PTA
Teachers, management and Parents Techers Association executives at Adjena Senior High School in the Eastern Region are in a stand-off over the alleged embezzlement of more than GH¢100,000 accrued from extra classes between 2019 and 2020.
Documents sighted by GhanaWeb indicate that between 2019 and 2020, the school held extra classes for students at all levels.
PTA Chairman of the school tells GhanaWeb this was done “with the aim of improving their performance in the West African Secondary School Certificate Exam.”
Part of the document reads “form three students were to pay GH¢200 each while form one and two students were to pay GH¢100 each, as agreed. As at that time, form three students numbered 850; form two, 120 (estimated) and form one; 570 (estimated)”.
The agreement between the PTA and the staff at the time of commencing the extra classes was that the staff would enjoy 60% of the generated revenue and 40% will be channelled into the construction of a kitchen for the school. This was confirmed by the PTA chairman in a GhanaWeb interview.
When money was embezzled
A staff of the school who spoke to GhanaWeb on condition of anonymity said that during the peak COVID-19 period, the PTA decided to proceed with the construction of the kitchen without prior knowledge of the staff as agreed.
An emergency meeting was held in June between the teaching staff and the PTA executives for a breakdown of the monies accrued so far and the amount expended.
It emerged at the meeting that the money was missing as the Financial Secretary who is staff of the school, Selorm Osabutey could not account for the money.
His defence was that the monies had been spent on the kitchen project with but the staff refuted the claims with counter suggestions that the progress made on the construction would not amount to GH¢12,000.
It culminated in a heated exchange between the teaching staff and the PTA executives and a committee was set up to probe the issue.
“The money involved is over GH¢100,000. The form threes were over 850 and they were paying GH¢200. The form ones and twos were paying GH¢100 each. The forms twos were 120 and form ones were 570.
“The committee audited only the form three students because they were in school at that time. The form One and Two students couldn’t audit them and wanted a new committee to audit them. The committee found out that not a penny of the money involved had been given to the teachers”, the source tells GhanaWeb.
It is the belief of the staff that the Financial Secretary of the PTA and the PTA chairman connived to allegedly rob the school and the staff of the money.
PTA chairman response
The PTA chairman of the school, Dr. Acheampong Kwakye confirmed the incident to GhanaWeb but refuted the figure being bandied around by the teachers.
Dr Kwakye noted that the amount of money which cannot be traced is ‘around GH¢40,000”. He also denied the allegations that he had a hand in it and placed the blame solely at the doorstep of the financial secretary.
“We’ve pushed the story to the board and the board is working on it. The money belongs to the PTA. It is our project and as the chairman of the PTA I ordered our secretary to send the money to the bank. He apparently did not send the money to the bank so we asked him to come and cash the money for the project that is when realized that the money is missing.
“The money is not GH¢100,000. I ordered for an audit and the money the guy embezzled was around GH¢40,000. We were asked to go to court and when we went to court, the Senchi court said they could retrieve GH¢20,000. We went to Odumase court and they said they can only take GH¢30,000. We had to go to Koforidua but we consulted a lawyer who told us to write to the board. We’ve written to the board and the matter is pending”.
The report of the document in possession of GhanaWeb shows that the amount
garnered was GH¢68,610 which is more than the PTA chairman is proclaiming. GhanaWeb checks also showed that the auditing was done for only the form threes.
The report by the auditing committee also absolved the PTA chairman of any blame but called for criminal prosecution for the PTA financial secretary.
District Director of GES
The Ghana Educations Service Director for the Asuogyaman district told GhanaWeb she would not comment on the issue as it is a matter pending before the regional GES.