The Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Health Robert Cudjoe has indicated that its highly impossible for his outfit to arrest the Principal of Tepa Nursing and Training College Madam Victoria Amoah who is alleged to have been fingered in a GH?9,247,800 fraud scandal.
An expose by Ultimate FM indicates that the Principal and the Accountant Asamoah Richard have been issuing fake receipts to applicants during admissions.
Ultimate FM uncovered that, the two, issue their own receipts rejecting the official General Counterfoil Receipt (GCR) printed by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to the detriment of the State.
They are alleged to have charged for West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) verification results and interview fees.
But speaking on Ultimate Breakfast Show hosted by Lantam Papanko, Mr Cudjoe explained that the ministry cannot make arrest until investigations are conducted into the matter.
‘We (ministry of health) haven’t fingered anybody, its an allegation, when those involved are caught, then we will deal with them. Now nothing of the sort has been reported to the ministry, so we can’t go and arrest anybody as at now, so when we get concrete evidence, then we will start the process of investigations,’ he stated.
The Ministry of Health PRO said no nursing and midwifery college is mandated by government to collect monies for verification of WASSCE results saying that process has been scrapped off.
‘The verification fee has been scrapped off, so nobody is required to pay verification fee. We are going to make sure that some of these lapses do not happen again… Previously, the applicants were charged between GH¢100 and GH¢150 as interview fee which included accommodation, feeding and some allowances for the panellists… But this year, we have not issued any directive yet… Application date is closed, so we will come up with appropriate amount so that nobody is cheated in the process… Admission is going to be done on merit,’ he said.
He warned that they will not entertain college principals who indulge in fraud scandal adding that punitive actions will be taken against the Tepa Nursing and Midwifery training college Principal and the Accountant if found culpable.
‘Any principal found in that practice will be dealt with, the Tepa Nursing and Midwifery Training college case is an allegation and if indeed it happened, it was a wrong thing, we don’t encourage this. We don’t expect any principal to use any receipts books apart from the GCR, that is the bottom line,’ he warned.
He requested Ultimate 106.9FM to provide him with the necessary documents to aid their investigations.
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