Stop subsidies from going to ghost accounts

 THE national department of education (NDOE) will save thousands of kina if orders were gi­ven to the Southern Highlands education department to provide a list of schools in the province.

There are allegations education officers and tea­chers are manipulating the system to benefit from the subsidies paid to schools that have been closed for more than 10 years.

For instance, the Sopise Community School at the border of Baimuru in Gulf and Erave in SHP re­ceived K26,224.

This school has been closed for almost 20 years and if it had received two subsidies a year, this ghost school would have re­ceived K786,720 for the past 15 years.

A recent visit to the educati­on department at FinCorp Haus indicated a student population of 297 when the total population of the Sopise community 

is less than that.

Can the NDOE identify the signatories of the school’s account and the education officers who approved its existence?

It must also go through the payroll system and identify the ghost tea­-chers who continue to receive salaries when the children in this remote area are desperate for education.

The same goes to the Wuposale Community School which received K11,953 and the Balowe Community School which received K21,069.

Both schools are in Erave district.

I am grateful that the government used the me­dia to reveal the list of schools in the country and indicated their account numbers and the amount each school received.

Arrangements are in place with the NDOE to update the progress of remote schools in Erave and this will eventually put a stop to the mishandling of funds by provincial education officers.

Where is the justice when crooks appointed to deliver education servi­ces continue to manipulate the system to submit false claims for their own benefit?

Ken Nandawa

Erave