The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng has said that the attempt to associate the Minister with the fraudulent payment for school placement is unfortunate.

He was referring to an allegation made by the former Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof. Opoku-Amankwa when he spoke to the Investigative Committee probing the matter.

This allegation indicates that after a probe was done using the log report on the system, the account used to place a student at a ‘Category A’ school was traced to that of the current Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum which is being handled by one Ms. Vera Amoah.

The placement was made after an amount of GHC7,000 had been allegedly demanded from a parent.

According to the PRO, when the Investigative Committee spoke to the Minister regarding the allegation, the report did not state whether or not he (the Minister) denied the GES Director-General’s assertion that a fraudulent transaction was traced to his account.

He noted that further investigation will be conducted to ascertain the truth or otherwise of this allegation.

Few weeks ago, The Fourth Estate released the ‘School placement for sale’ exposé that revealed the corruption in Ghana’s school placement system.

Following the exposé, it was found that some eight persons had been arrested by the Police and charged. None of the eight suspects works at the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service, Computerized School Selection and Placement System (CSSPS) Secretariat or the Free SHS Secretariat.

The Fourth Estate also found that protocol placement into the ‘Category A’ schools after payments were done could only be approved by the Minister of Education and the Director General of the GES.