Some staff of Axim Girls Senior High School (SHS) in the Western Region have called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to initiate a thorough investigation into a forgery incident that has occurred in the school.
The teachers claim that they have chanced on a document that has their forged signatures on it. They said the document indicates that each of the teachers has received an amount of GH¢1,861.49 under what is termed as ‘Government academic intervention’.
They explained that teachers in the public secondary schools are, from time to time, given some money under the intervention to motivate them to work hard.
The teachers asserted that when the management of Axim Girls SHS received the money, which was for a period of three months, the teachers were not informed.
They alleged that the management then decided to disburse the money to the teachers and gave some teachers GH¢1,500 and others, over GH¢2,000.
“We were made to sign by the amount we received on a sheet of paper. However, we have chanced on a new sheet with our forged signatures. On that sheet it was indicated that all the teachers received GH¢1,861.49, which is not true,” the teachers added.
They said under the Ghana Education Service’s code of conduct, forging signature to claim money on behalf of staff is categorised as a major misconduct and breach of contract of service.
“Whoever created that list was about to forward it to the GES. But it was leaked and at a recent staff meeting the issue was revealed and all the teachers were shocked,” they stated.
“We are therefore calling on the GES to, as a matter of urgency, conduct thorough investigation into the matter so that whoever is behind it could be punished,” the teachers stressed.
Headmistress’ Reaction
The Headmistress of the school, Augustina Essel Cudjoe, told DAILY GUIDE in an interview that she has just been posted to the school, but confirmed that the issue was raised at a recent staff meeting.
“I told the person to exercise patience because we were vacating, but promised to set up a committee to investigate the issue,” she disclosed.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Axim