The Ghana Education Service (GES) has denied allegations of corruption in the disbursement of the Capitation Grant at its headquarters and regional offices. The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD), a think-tank, had claimed that a research it conducted indicated that the service inflated pupil enrolment figures to the Ministry of Finance for the allocation of the Capitation Grant. The acting Financial Controller of GES, Mr. Christian Koramoah, told the Times that the allegation was baseless. He said the GES had no reason to inflate enrolment figures because the Ministry of Finance transferred the funds through the Accountant General's Department and the Bank of Ghana to the bank accounts of the District Education Offices. "GES collects the enrolment figures from the District Education Offices (DEOs) and forwards them to the Ministry of Education then to Ministry of Finance which transfers the Capitation Grants through the Controller and Accountant General's Department and the Bank of Ghana to the bank accounts of the DEOs. GES is not involved in the transfer process," he stated, and described the allegation by CDD as unfair and very unfortunate. " The Times on July 30, published the report by CDD, which is dedicated to the promotion of democracy. The report raised concerns about the disbursement of the Capitation Grant by GES .. "We found that GES enrolment figures for the surveyed districts were higher than those provided by the DEOs by 32 per cent in 2005/2006, 33 per cent in 2006/2007, 35 per cent in 2007/2008 and 34 in 2008/2009. "The inconsistencies in enrolment figures should be worrying because they raise fundamental questions regarding the likelihood of the Finance Ministry releasing funds for ghost pupils because of probable inflated figures," CDO said. The report also alleged that there were some leakages in the course of transfer of the Capitation Grant from the GES, through the DEOs to the beneficiary schools. However, Mr. Koramoah, said the GES carried out audits at the DEOs whenever it detected astronomical increases in the pupil enrolment figures from the DEOs. He said the GES was currently reviewing the allegations by CDD at the DEOs and would conduct a comprehensive investigation if it detected any act of corruption in the transfer of the Capitation Grant. Explaining the alleged leakages in the Capitation Grant, he said some DEOs deducted a portion of the capitation grant for organising sports, cultural and other extra-curricular activities. He admitted that the disbursement of the capitation grant delayed sometimes but did not take as long as three years as declared by CDD. Source: Ghanaian Times