The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament has directed the Kadjebi District Directorate of the Ghana Education Services (GES) to arrest, Mr. Wisdom Patrick Krampah, a former Headteacher of Ahamansu LA Erishad primary school in the Oti Region.
The committee directives followed the Auditor General Report that, Wisdom Krampah vacated his duty post as Headteacher of the Erishad Primary School in February 2018 to join the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) as a Project Assistant but still earned a salary as a teacher till June 2020.
Chairman of the Committee, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, described Kramah’s action as “completely criminal” and directed the Kadjebi District of GES to lead police to arrest the former Headteacher wherever he is found and lock him up till he is granted an official bail to refund the unearned salary with interest.
“It is clear this is a criminal act and I hereby direct that you (District GES Director) go to wherever Mr. Krampah is, with the police to effect his arrest. He can be granted bail, but make sure he is prosecuted if he fails or refuses to pay the money. When he refunds the money, then you pay it into the Auditor General Recovery Accounts and also report back to the committee through your Headquarters,” the Chairman of the Committee directed.
The Auditor-General report on the Public Accounts of Ghana Ministries, Departments and other Agencies for the year ended 31 December 2022, discovered that, Mr. Krampah received payment of unearned salary to the tune of GH¢72,759.32.
According to the Auditor General, the former Headteacher’s action was, “in contravention of Regulation 92 of the Public Financial Management Regulations, 2019(L.I. 2378), our review of payroll records revealed that Mr. Krampah Patrick Wisdom, a Headteacher at Ahamansu LA Erishad Primary School vacated post on 1 February 2018 and joined Youth Employment Agency (YEA) as a Project Assistant.”
The Audit General Report added that, “Management validated and paid Krampah salaries from February 2018 to June 2020 resulting in a total unearned salary of GH¢72,759.32.”
“We recommended that the Regional Education Director should ensure that the District Director of Education recovers the amount of GH¢72,759.32 from Mr. Krampah Patrick Wisdom with interest at the prevailing Bank of Ghana rate and pay same into the Auditor-General’s Recoveries Account with the Bank of Ghana, failing which the amount should be recovered from the District Director and the Validators,” the Auditor General recommended.
In a similar development, the Public Accounts Committee has also given the Director General of GES, Dr Eric Nkansah, a two-week ultimatum to investigate and report back to the Committee on a matter of unearned salaries paid to a sick teacher.
The GES Director-General is expected to explain to the Committee how a sum of GHC 24,000.00 was paid to the teacher who is said to be suffering from a spiritual disease.
In the face of the inability of the said teacher to report to school due to sickness, he earned his salary according to reports.
In response, the Director-General admitted the development was an unusual case which required further probing and thus requested the leave of the Committee to investigate the matter further.
Dr James Avedzi said the issue of unearned salaries is becoming a concern to the committee and urged the GES together with the Ministry of Education to take steps to validate that teachers are effective.
He added that the Ministry and GES strengthen the system by improving the validation process with more layers to avoid collusion, stressing that, there is the possibility the Circuit supervisor could conspire with the Headteacher or the Headteacher colluding with the teacher to cook validated report for their parochial interest.
In that regard, the Committee Chairman believed a third layer by which the Ministry or GES Headquarters could independently validate what the Headteacher or the Circuit supervisor validated is accurate and concurrent.