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Under-fire teacher repays Penny Bank funds
Regional Education Officer of Region 6, Mrs Shafiran Bhajan, has revealed that the teacher implicated in a million-dollar Penny Bank scam at the Number 48 Primary School on the Corentyne, has repaid all of the money owed.
This disclosure was made at the Region 6 Administration’s first press conference for 2013 in the Regional Democratic Council Boardroom earlier this week.
The Number 48 Primary School
“The teacher repaid the money that was requested of her by the authorities who conducted the audits. I was informed by the CID that the teacher was required to pay $585,000 and she paid this”, said Bhajan.
It was this newspaper that broke the story. Angry and frustrated parents had contacted Kaieteur News in November last year and broke their silence, demanding that the teacher pinpointed in the scam, pay back over $2M which their children, Grade 6 students, had invested in the penny-bank scheme over the prior year. The teacher was sent on leave.
Red flags were raised in early November after the children were due to have their savings and bank books returned to them, and none of it was forthcoming. Then the questions started to flow. Parents and guardians began to visit the school and seek answers but only promises were being made by the teacher in question, as well as the school’s administration.
As a result of the news article, an investigation was launched by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Guyana Police Force (GPF) in ‘B’ Division. The Ministry of Education, according to Bhajan, also launched an audit and investigation into the school’s penny bank fund and financial records. The teacher was found culpable of the act and was then mandated to repay all the monies she pilfered.
This newspaper understands that many parents were nervous about repayments since the fear was that the teacher in question had booked plane tickets to leave the country.
An irate parent whose child is supposed to collect $78,000, had told this newspaper in November, “I do not know what Miss [name of teacher] did with the students’ money. But several times, I asked for the money—up to graduation day I asked—she said we will get the money, and eventually I did not hear back anything until I heard she was on leave and booked ticket to leave the country and all the ledgers in the school for the children’s names to get their money was canceled and she held up the kids’ bank books before school closed.
I do not know what is going on! I do not know if we will get robbed because I heard she is leaving the country”.”This is unfair…I went to school and did penny- banking and this never happened”.
The teacher, the parent opined, should not be allowed to continue teaching in the system. The teacher also acted as Head teacher at the school at one time.
Kaieteur News understands that the teacher had borrowed more than $1M from relatives just after the November publication and lodged it in the bank to appease the angry parents.
The incident resulted in the education authorities in Region 6 initiating audits of financial records of other schools. There were several audits done — state audits, regional audits and co-op audits — and the Department of Education took steps to ensure that such an incident does not recur, by requesting an audit of all the other co-op societies of other schools”.
No disciplinary action has been taken thus far on the errant teacher by the Teaching Service Commission (TSC). One of the charges laid out by the Charges and Penalties Documents of the TSC includes misappropriation of school funds and if found guilty, a teacher can be dismissed.
Mrs Bhajan stated that reports were submitted by the police and education officials and the results are pending. “Reports were sent to the Chief Education Officer (CEO) but school has just reopened and I expect that events will unfold as the days go by”, she stated.
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