There is an uneasy calm at the office of the Integrated Personnel Payroll Database (IPPD) of the Ghana Education Service (GES) in the Offinso municipality of the Ashanti Region, following the discovery of fraudulent deals allegedly perpetrated by the coordinator, John Kolan.
Currently, some concerned citizens in the area are calling for the immediate arrest, investigation and trial of John Kolan for his purported corrupt practices, to serve as a deterrent to others.
Sources close to the IPPD office who pleaded anonymity, told DAILY GUIDE that John Kolan deceptively recruited his son, Peter Kolan – who is said to be a student at Kintampo – as a pupil teacher at the Offinso Obuasi R/C Primary School.
The suspect allegedly put his son’s name on the GES payroll and was taking his salary from Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) in Offinso from 2012 until an embargo was reportedly placed on it in 2014, making it impossible for him to make further withdraws.
At present, Peter Kolan’s fraudulent salary passes through Adukro M/A Primary School, using ID 880810 as a staff number. He however, has no file at the office except his pay slips.
The IPPD coordinator was also accused of conniving with the Human Resource Manager at the office – who was said to have gone on retirement to employ a man who is now at the University of Development Studies in Wa.
He is also said to be taking his salary from the Agogo M/A Primary School in the municipality for no work done.
Checks uncovered how John Kolan also backdated teachers’ appointment letters on their IPPD input forms without their consent and when their salaries were paid, he would demand part of it from the teachers or risk having their salaries blocked if they refused.
Two persons among the many affected teachers included Adam Haruna and Lukman Abubakar, who are teaching at the Kokote Islamic M/A Basic School.
Reached for his comments on phone on Wednesday, March 11, 2015, Adam Haruna confirmed the Offinso IPPD coordinator’s fraudulent deals, describing him as a corrupt man who would stop at nothing to make illegitimate wealth.
He recalled how John Kolan blocked his salary for one year from February 2014 to February 2015 for refusing to offer GH¢1,000 he (Kolan) demanded from him.
‘It took the intervention of my senior brother called Alhaji Oldman who is a resident of Offinso, to get my salary paid,’ Haruna said.
The coordinator is also accused of collecting GH¢300 each from the 27 teachers who were recruited two years ago and had their salaries paid in December 2014. The teachers were said to have already paid GH¢500 each to him for their registered numbers.
‘In October 2014, about 80 teachers who could not receive their salaries were made to pay GH¢50 each for his transportation to Accra to work on their salaries. Information we had was that he was even summoned by the regional director of education on this matter,’ the source said.
Meanwhile, when the paper contacted John Kolan on his cell phone on Tuesday, March 10, 2015, he declined immediate comment with the excuse that he was driving and that he would call later in the day.
But he never called and would not pick the paper’s calls until hours later he asked a Kumasi-based broadcast journalist to plead for mercy.
FROM James Quansah, Kumasi
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