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Food items that could feed about 200 students of Peki Senior High School in the South Dayi District of the Volta Region for about a week are alleged to have been diverted to appease an auditor.
The items estimated to cost thousands of Ghana cedis include, two gallons of oil (25 litres each), bags of rice, bags of maize, cartons of milk, packs of tom brown, packs of tomato paste and even the school’s branded exercise books among others.
The food items were loaded onto the school’s pickup truck on Friday, January 10, 2020, destined for the auditor’s house in Ho, the Volta Regional Capital were intercepted by the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Rev. Johnson Avuletey.
Narrating the details to dailyguidenetwork.com, the Deputy Volta Regional Minister alleged that the move was part of calculated attempts to sabotage the Free Senior High School programme.
It also goes to confirm long-held rumours that school heads, bursars and matrons among other senior level personnel in various schools are in the business of diverting food items and other supplies meant to cater for students for their personal gains.
He said, he had a tip-off, at about midday of that fateful Friday that auditors were at Peki Senior High School (PESCO).
However, for some reason the school heads were loading a pickup truck full of food items to the house of one of the auditors.
He was not sure whether the auditors had found something untoward in the school’s accounts but wondered why the school would extend such gesture to the auditor if everything was really in order.
Upon getting the tip-off, he put some informants and police personnel on the road and the pick-up truck was traced at Sokode-Lokoe near Ho and followed, till it got to the final destination, thus the house of the auditor around Dome, in Ho.
After offloading the items, the Police got to the house and reloaded the items and sent them to the Regional Police Headquarters.
The Deputy Minister noted that there have been several complaints of diversion and so, some informants were set-up to monitor activities on the ground to ascertain the claims.
He said, “several complaints have come and so, we put together a team because, the school heads and matrons have been making a lot of complaints, yet they are sabotaging the system.”
He urged the Police to get the bottom of the issue and ensure all culprits are brought to book to serve as a big deterrent to others, not only in the region but across the country.
The Police who confirmed the report lodged by the Deputy Minister, noted that further details will be provided after investigations have been conducted.
Pictures of the Pick-up truck and food items as well as the Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Jonsson Avuletey.
