School wants probe into missing funds

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Tuesday 26th March 2013

 By JEFFREY ELAPA

GUWALA Primary School in Koroba-Kopiago, Hela, is deeply in debt while it awaits the K80,000 allocated to it as tuition-free fees by the national government.

The school wants education authorities to investigate how such as huge sum of money had gone missing, affecting 400 students at the school.

The reports indicated that the remote school had not received its share of the free education funds from the last quarter of 2012 and the first quarter of this year.

School board chairman and former provincial member Mark Bibilia said by phone from Koroba yesterday that the school had been operating on debit from business houses and has incurred more than K20,000 in debts.

He said the government allocated K40,000 in the last quarter of 2012 and K41,000 was allocated in this year’s first quarter allocation.

Bibilia said their attempts to check with the provincial education office in Mendi, Southern Highlands, was unsuccessful.

He added that the school would be forced to close as they could not run a level-five primary school without funds.

Head master Paul Peno and school treasurer John Lalu also confirmed that the school had not received its free education subsidy, although the funds were released and published in the daily newspapers.