Institute for Liberty and Policy Innovation (ILAPI), a civil society organisation, has mounted pressure on the Ministry of Education (MoE) to order for the immediate arrest and prosecution of former Public Relations Office (PRO) of Ghana Education Service (GES), Rev Jonathan Bettey, and his accomplices for alleged wrongdoing.
The ILAPI in a statement signed and issued by its Head of Education, Mr Eric Owusu, and copied to Today in Accra yesterday, learnt with great disappointment the shocking revelation made on Asempa FM by the acting Deputy Director General of GES, Mr Anthony Boateng.
According to Mr Boateng, the statement noted that Rev Bettey allegedly forged his promotion letter to attain his current rank in the service.
The statement noted that Mr Boateng further stated that the former PRO admitted he never attended any promotion interview and cited his promotion as a gift from the former director general of GES.
“If this is something to go by then we think it is so unfair to the hard working teachers and educators within the service who had to apply and go through rigorous interviews in order to be promoted to their various ranks,” the statement queried.
According to the statement, the Ghana Education Service was not a charitable organisation to be dishing out promotion to its members on a silver platter.
“We don’t just find it ridiculous but “childish” on the part of GES to transfer such a character to Central Region Education office without giving him out to the appropriate law enforcement agencies for him to face the full rigours of the law,” the statement asserted.
According to Mr Boateng, and we quote, “We felt we’d done him a favour by quietly transferring him from the face of the GES to a region.
The statement continued to indicate that “We felt this is something criminal but we wanted to massage it, then he goes out there to talk the way he did.” This is clear admission of wrongdoing on the part of the GES.”
It stressed that this unguarded statement shouldn’t have come from a body tasked to train children to become responsible citizens and contribute their quotas to national development.
“We have gone through the code of conducts of GES members and couldn’t sight any text advising members to be massaging criminal conducts.
“We are of the view that this statement is highly unbecoming of someone who is a deputy director general of a noble service like the Ghana Education Service and must not go unpunished,” the statement opined.
The statement, therefore, called on the GES council/government to, as a matter of urgency, constitute a full-scale investigation into this matter to save the service.
It stressed the need to ask all those involved in this fraudulent deal to resign from their posts and also cause total criminal prosecution of all those involved.
The statement further stressed the need to order Rev Bettey to pay back all the monies he has withdrawn from government coffers from this fraudulent promotion as well as
make public the forgery documents.
The statement hinted that a legal suit will follow against GES for such a gross indiscipline and other ongoing rots if nothing was done to build public trust.
Story: Freeman KORYEKPOR AWLESU
Writer’s email: freeman.koryekpor@todaygh.com
