The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), an institution which is expected to protect the interest and welfare of teachers in the country, appears to be feeding fat on the contributions of the poor teachers whose interest they profess to be protecting.
The association has been accused by none other than its own Deputy General Secretary, Administration and Labour Relations, Mr Awotwe Nkansah, for gross mismanagement and corruption among top officials of the association and clandestine moves by former officials to cover traces of corruption during their tenure in office.
He based his accusations on adverse findings of an investigative report on how funds are being mismanaged by executives of the association.
In a petition to the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), dated December 7, 2015 and sighted by The Finder, Mr Awotwe Nkansah prayed CHRAJ to help the association “expose, reverse and halt deep-seated corrupt practices” in the Labour Union.
He made varied allegations of corruption ranging from procurement fraud to questionable payments and a clandestine attempt to cover up and thwart efforts to expose the corruption in the association.
Mr Nkansah, a failed contender for the General Secretary position of GNAT, told The Finder that in 2002 while a worker as the Secretary to the salaries and conditions of service at the association, he undertook a project to identify most of the leakages in the system, which report he made available to the then General Secretary, Mrs Irene Duncan Adam (Retired), for action but to no avail.
Mr Nkansah explained that in 2005, he caused an investigation into alleged corrupt deals involving the then General Secretary and one senior staff member of the association, but noted that the committee tasked to investigate the matter failed to bring the culprits to book.
He alleged clandestine arrangements which made it possible for retired officials to effectively monitor post-retirement developments and latently control events via their cronies at post.
In his petition to CHRAJ, Mr Nkansah pointed to an alleged procurement fraud involving the purchase of diaries and other souvenirs for the association in 2013 and 2014.
He noted that over GH¢4 million was earmarked for the purchase of the items, but the diaries and souvenirs never got to the majority of members of the association.
He also alleged that the association released an amount of US$400,000 to Unique Insurance Company under very questionable circumstances.
He also questioned why Mr Jacob Anderson, then Head of Organisation and Administration, though on retirement, continued to sign cheques for the Senior Staff Welfare Scheme.
He also questioned some payments made by the association and foreign accounts which were held in the name of the association, which he claimed were shrouded in secrecy.
To verify some of these allegations, a committee of enquiry, led by Mr Paul Asamanaba Apanga, a former Northern Regional Director of Education, was tasked to investigate some of the allegations.
The Apanga report, a copy of which is in possession of The Finder, established that favouritism and cronyism has bedevilled the association, especially within the full-time staff.
The serious allegations of alleged corruption involving huge sums of monies were, however, dismissed on grounds that the one levelling the allegations could not produce enough evidence to support his claims.
No further investigations were conducted by the committee on the said issues.
The committee also concluded that most of the corruption allegations Mr Nkansah made against the then General Secretary had been looked into by a previous committee and, therefore, did not consider it as relevant.
The Finder, however, observed that some documents which were presented to the committee as evidence of disbursement and which were accepted by the committee without question raise eyebrows.
For example, M. Barbisotti & Sons, a building and road contractor, was paid an amount of ¢1,328,822,572.49 as part payment for a GNAT project in Kumasi.
The receipt from the company acknowledging payment indicated the money was received from a Standard Trust/ GNAT account.
Again, the receipt, which was accepted by the committee as evidence for the disbursement of the said amount, did not have a date on it.
Mr Nkansah, levelling allegations of a “dubious” transaction, contends that the association never held a joint account with Standard Trust and could not have issued that cheque.
According to the report, the then General Secretary, Irene Duncan, applied for and purchased a 2011-registered brand new Toyota Hilux, an official vehicle with registration number GN 4923-11, at a paltry sum of GH¢7,000.
A handwritten letter by the then General Secretary requesting to buy the vehicle, dated March 5, 2013, referred to the two-year-old 4-wheel-vehicle as used car.
Ironically, vehicles which were ten-years-old as of 2013, when they were auctioned, sold for GH¢10,000.
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