Allegations of fraud in CSSPS: Apaak urges security agencies to unearth truth

The Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, Dr Clement Apaak, has commended the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, for petitioning the National Investigations Bureau (NIB) and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service to conduct investigations into allegations of corruption in the placement of students under the CSSPS.

Getting to the bottom

In a statement in support of the petition, he urged the security agencies to do everything possible to get to the bottom of the matter so that those involved are dealt with to serve as a deterrent to others.

“I expect the security agencies to leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of this matter. I have confidence in the two security agencies and I am sure they will do a good job.

“I expect that the investigations will be expedited without fear or favour and the report made public,” Dr Apaak emphasised.

Restoring confidence

He described the step taken by the GES boss as one in the right direction and, therefore, urged the security agencies to go into the bottom of it and to make the findings public.

Dr Apaak said he was confident that the investigations would exonerate the Ministry of Education and its agencies, particularly the GES of any wrongdoing and those found culpable dealt with.

He said in so doing, it would redeem the image of the ministry and its agencies and further give the general public the assurance that the CSSPS was still credible.

“Currently, as it stands, many people do not have confidence in the system and it is important that the ministry is seen to be concerned about all the allegations against staff of the ministry and its agencies,” he said.

Dr Apaak said he was the first to call for the engagement of the NIB, “and I am happy that Prof Opoku-Amankwa thinks in the same line.”

Suffering in silence

According to him, a number of people were suffering in silence and parents were paying hefty amounts to get their children into the grade ‘A’ schools, and congratulated Maxwell Maundy, the parent who damned the implications and showed his face in a two-part open letter to the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, and published in sections of the media to narrate his harrowing experience with a man he only knows as Sammy in his desperate move to get a school for his daughter.

Dr Apaak, who is also the Member of Parliament for Bulsa South, contended that many people had similar stories but decided not to come out for obvious reasons, saying that the development was a very unfortunate one that needed to be addressed immediately.

Review

The MP reiterated a call for the review of the CSSPS after its implementation since 2006.

"That is necessary to look at where the challenges are coming from so that they can be addressed, and if there is the need for some few amendments, then they are effected," he said.