The Ho Municipal Director of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr John Teku, has ordered an audit into the books of the directorate’s store to determine the actual number of items that might have been looted and sold by the Supply officer.
Wisdom Atawiah, the supply officer was arrested together with Newton Fiagbor, a Bookshop operator in Ho last Wednesday by the Ho Central Police, after text books and other stationery meant for free distribution to public schools were put up for sale on the shelves of the bookshop.
The items, bearing the ‘Not for Sale’ stamp, comprised 171 boxes of white chalk, 22 pieces of Longman dictionary; 140 pieces of crayons, eight copies of Primary 3 English textbook, 536 technical drawing and sketchbooks were retrieved from the shop.
According to the Volta Regional Police Commander, DCOP Nana Asomah Hineh, the Supply officer admitted to the crime and said he [Atawiah] sold the consignments to the shopkeeper at the cost of Ghc1, 500 to aid him pay his ward’s university fees.
However, speaking on the incident, the Municipal Education director, Teku who was shocked at the conduct of the supply officer, said he has directed the internal auditor to go through the store books to ascertain the amount of stolen items.
“I have instructed my head of audit to get into the books and find out the total allocations of the items mentioned and all others, how many of such items have been allocated to the schools and what is left in the store. So we can use it to substantiate the quantity taken in the shop,” he stated.
He said the suspect admitted to diverting some of the items to that shop sometime last year.
Mr. Teku, however, assured that the directorate will assist the police to get to the bottom of the issue for the law to take its course.
Meanwhile, the two suspects have since been granted Police enquiry bail while the Police mount a search for a third suspect.
Source: Ghana/StarrFMonline.com/103.5FM
