Institutional fraudulent deals exposed

Serious allegations of financial malpractices have been levelled against the Management of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI). Probing into the activities of the Institute had revealed that there had been over-invoicing, under-declaration of internally generated funds, gross abuse of procurement processes, stealing of project funds donated by Donors and stealing of Government of Ghana funds.

The Crusading Guide gathered in the course of investigations that in 1999 a 5bn cedis Government of Ghana Grant made available for distressed vocational institutes at a time that the Department for International Development (DFID) had put equipment in all the NVTI schools, was embezzled.

It was also learnt that Internally Generated Funds (IGF) from the tests since 1999-running into billions of cedis-had been embezzled. As a result of these and other allegations, a source to the NVTI urged the security agencies to investigate its activities. “I think the National Security Council should investigate these and other allegations so that the perpetrators could be brought to book”, the source advocated.

The crusading Guide can reliably say that the Minister of Manpower Development and Employment has been asked to interdict the Director of the Institute as well as the Budgeting, Planning and Procurement Manager, who have been cited in the allegations.

The Minister is also to suspend forthwith all transfer effected since August 2002 “as they appear to have been done with the intention of muzzling some officers the Director suspects will be crucial in assisting the Auditors to arrive at the truth”.