Progressive Teachers and Youth Alliance (PROTAYA) has the Economic and Organized Crime Office to look into the dealings of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in respect to monies used in printing their magazines and calendars.
In a letter written to the Head office of the Economic and Organized Crime Office dated July 10,2017,the group was requesting a formal petition of inquiry into the dealings of the Ghana National Association of Teachers.
The confined areas of inquiry/complaint are the following.
1).The printing of the January-June 2014 error-ridden edition of the magazine. “How many copies of the magazine was printed. The investigation by the Finder which was published on www.ghanaweb.com general news on Thursday, 25th February 2016, has it that, “a total of 80,000 copies of a quarterly magazine for teachers printed by the Ghana National Association of Teachers at a cost of GH¢120,000 with monthly deductions from teachers` meagre salaries have been shredded”.
The Progressive Teachers and Youth Alliance also picked the issue up which they wrote a press release on Thursday, 6th April, 2017 on it. Their release according to the group was picked up by Eastern FM, peacefmonline.com,ghanaweb,etc.
This made Eastern FM called the president of the Progressive Teachers and Youth Alliance (Mr. Koriwie Haruna A.Muah) and the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (Mr. David Ofori Acheampong) during their afternoon news for clarity of the issue.
According to the letter ,Mr. David Ofori Acheampong admitted that, they printed the said Magazine.
2).The shredding of the January-June 2014 magazine.” Was there any shredding of that particular magazine? How many copies of the magazine was shredded?” The teachers requested.
3).The cost of printing the magazine. “What was the actual cost of printing the said magazine?”
The teachers emphadised,that Mr. David Ofori Acheampong who is the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers also admitted in the same interview on Eastern FM that, they shredded the said magazine and that they admitted to the finder`s journalist that came there but the amount we quoted was not accurate.
The group therefore want to know the actual cost of the said magazine since they are disputing both that of the finder and the Progressive Teachers and Youth Alliance.
4).The purpose of shredding the magazine. “What was the main purpose of shredding the said magazine? Was it because of the inclusion of the corrupt practices going on within the Association which was envisaged by the former president of the Association in his aims? Was it because of the reason the General Secretary gave that, it was containing a distorted information? If it was about the issue of misinformation contained in the magazine, as the General Secretary is saying, then why the Association didn’t also shred the 2017 calendar which was also having in it, June 1st 2017 as Eid-ul-Fitr which was celebrated on 26th June 2017. This is the biggest factual inaccuracy that shouldn’t have seen the light of the day. But was brought out and shared to teachers, when was the shredding done? Where was the shredding done? Who and who witnessed the shredding of the magazine.”
5).The superintending over the printing of the said magazine.
“Was the Head of Public Relations at the Ghana National Association of Teachers ( Mr. Peter Korda) the one who superintended over the printing of the magazine? If Yes, how come he didn’t take his time to make sure that the information they gave out was accurate? Who gave out the information that was entered into the said magazine?”
6).The Editorial Team.
“Was the editorial team punished for causing such a huge financial loss to the association, since the General Secretary according to the finder`s journalist accused the editorial team for not doing a good job, which led to the huge waste?” the group demanded.
7) Financial loss to the Ghanaian Teacher.
“Has any financial loss been caused to the contributor of the dues of the association, since the major source of income of the association is the deductions from the monthly salary of the teachers? If Yes, how are those monies going to be retrieved from those who wasted the money due to negligence?”
8) Payment of the wasted money.
“Is there anyway the wasted money can be collected from the officers responsible for the printing of the said magazine?”
9) Punishment for the culprits.
Can the leadership of the Association be sanctioned for causing such a huge financial loss to the teachers` dues?
10) Preventing future occurrences.
“What strategies can be put in place to avoid all this error-ridden documents they have been printing and causing financial loss to the association which the teachers` end up being the losers?”
The Progressive Teachers and Youth Alliance, trust that the Ghana National Association of Teachers, will answer these questions honestly since they are responsible for protecting and promoting the welfare of the teachers but not to waste their dues.
The full support of EOCO is herewith called upon in this petition to get to the bottom of this corruption scandal since the Ghanaian Teachers are involved.
Source:EducationGhana.net