How US Court Cleared Mills' Man

*Unraveling the saga of doctored dossier on nominee for AMA job

Emerging evidence suggest that reports that Dr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, the President’s nominee for the mayoral post of the national capital is guilty of embezzling funds of school children at the South Carolina-based W. A Perry Middle School may not be accurate.

Checks by this paper show that though the nominee was arrested and given self-recognizance bail on June 13, 2005 after he was briefly charged with embezzlement of public funds, the charges were reduced to breach of trust when it was determined by the American authorities that there was insufficient evidence to back their case.

According to records available to this paper, the basis of the initial allegation was that the Ghanaian head of the W. A. Perry Middle School who was supervisor of multi-million dollar grants under his watch had embezzled $4,460 at the time of the audit in January 2005. At the time of the audit, the accused had over $600,000 sitting in the school’s account and was on holiday in Ghana.

On his return to the US in February, Mr. Vanderpuije, who was unaware that a second audit of his books had commenced in his absence after an initial audit four months earlier gave him a clean bill of health, resigned on February 25, 2005 in protest against the audit of his school in his absence and without his participation while he was on holiday in Ghana. He also directed the school in his resignation letter to deduct the sum from his $6000-a-month salary if it felt it had been fair to him.

Almost five months later, this paper gathered that he was invited by the South Carolina Police that the school had pressed charges against him for alleged embezzlement, following which the police allowed him to report to the station where he was placed under arrest, sent to court and bailed the same day.

According to a report prepared by the South Carolina State Board of Education on February 8, 2006 and signed by its chairman, Joe Isaac, and available to this paper, the charges brought against Dr Vanderpuije were not because he had personally helped himself to the funds of his school children.

Rather they were because the Richland County District One School procedures had not been followed and funds misused. The alleged misuse stems from allegations that $4,460 of funds spent during a $250,000-plus a year exchange programme over a four-year period, which should have been spent in the US was spent in Ghana.

Even then, the prosecution arrived at the decision that the charges could not be sustained because there was insufficient evidence to back the charges.

Consequently, it opted for breach of trust following which the innocent pleading Vanderpuije entered into a pre-trial programme in 2006 in January 2006 while the court processes were ongoing.

On June 7, 2006, the State of South Carolina County of Richland Court in a ruling procured by this paper cleared Dr Vanderpuije of the charges of breach of trust and ruled that all records relating to his arrest “ and subsequent discharge pursuant to the” section of the law under which he was charged “be dismissed, expunged and immediately destroyed and that no evidence of such records pertaining to such charge shall be maintained by any municipal, county or state agency except non-public information retained on each person….”

Significantly, the South Carolina State Board of Education which suspended the license of Dr Vanderpuije following the initial allegation against him at a meeting the following month after his exoneration by the court on Wednesday, July 12, 2006 ruled that the nominee’s licence be re-issued to him.

The meeting which was chaired by Mr. Joe Isaac was urged through a motion moved by one of its members, one Mrs. Maguire Kristin, that the Board adopt “an amended Order of suspension regarding the certificate of Alfred O. Vanderpuije, certificate 201179, pursuant to the Richland Court Order of General Sessions order of Destruction of Arrest Records dated June 8, 2006.”

The motion” according to the memo of the meeting available to this paper, “was seconded by another Board member, Mr. Mike Forrester and approved by the Board.

Consequently the Board approved and re-issued the Educator Certificate to the nominee, backdating his validity period to July 1, 2005 and ending on June 30, 2010.

Investigations by this paper also established that contrary to reports that his former employees see him as a crook, records suggest that both his immediate supervisor at the W. A Perry Middle School at the time of his fracas with the school and State of South Carolina Department of Education have high praises for the nominee.

“Mr. Vanderpuije has a wealth of experience and education, and his skills and experience would be value-added to any school and district. Please accept this letter as my support for his employment” wrote Phyllis Sanders of the State of South Carolina Department of Education in appraisal of the nominee long after the incident on June 20, 2006.

The Area Superintendant of W. A. Perry Middle School, Ms. Helen S Jones, who initially got Mr. Alfred Vanderpuije so mad he resigned following the auditing that was done in his absence, equally wrote of him after the saga had all ended:

“This letter serves as a reference for Mr. Alfred Vanderpuije who has applied to your school district for the position of principal. I have known Alfred for six years; four of those years as his supervisor when he served as principal of W. A Perry Middle school

“During the time I supervised Mr. Vanderpuije, he demonstrated outstanding leadership in instructional supervision and curriculum planning. His desire to insure that his students were given opportunities to experience success was evident in the programs and services he provided…”