The Deputy Minister of Education, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has jumped to the defense of the Governing Board of the National Service Scheme (NSS) saying they did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n
According to the Minister, the preliminary report from the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) did not indict the Board and thus it will be unfair to dissolve it.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”4ZIbM9ntLEeKwqXilrAKdYy7KJmrxNKo”]\u201c\u2026Their[NSS Board] continued existence or operations will not necessarily affect ongoing investigations.If National Security thought so, they would have communicated that to us and the Board would have been asked to step aside,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Investigations initiated on the scheme by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) indicate that about GHC7.9 million was paid to 22,612 non-existent national service persons<\/span><\/strong><\/a> in more than 100 districts in July 2014.<\/p>\n According to the findings, the NSS Director, Ahaji Alhassan allegedly\u00a0tried to bribe the investigators<\/span><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span>a sum of about GH\u00a2100,000\u00a0in an attempt to\u00a0silence the BNI team.<\/p>\n The publication of the findings has generated public outcry with several individuals<\/span><\/span><\/strong> <\/a>and groups<\/strong><\/span><\/a> asking for the dissolution of the Board .<\/p>\n The pressure group, Forum for Governance and Justice (FGJ) asked president John Mahama to immediately dissolve the Governing Board\u00a0of the Scheme because members cannot absolve themselves from the recent rot discovered at the Secretariat but the Deputy Minister disagrees.<\/p>\n According to him, there is no evidence that the board is complicit in the scam or will impede the ongoing investigations by the security agencies.<\/p>\n He also stated that \u201cgovernment has no intentions of closing down the National Service Scheme now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe expect governing Board to hold the fort, \u2026manage affairs, clean up the system and carry out reforms which will certainly be required.\u201d<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Marian Efe Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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