Teachers at the Hage Geingob High school have raised their concerns over missing school funds, computers with financial records and missing pages in the receipt books.
The committee of teachers at the school stressed they have had enough and decided to take the matter up to the relevant authorities.
“This has been going on for so long and for so long we have not been speaking up but the matter has gone out of hand and something has to be done urgently,” says one of the teachers who prefers to remain anonymous.
According to a letter dated 03 March 2023 by the concerned group of teachers to the Anti Corruption Commission, in 2020 the commerce head of department has withdrawn herself from dealing with finance due to her suspicion on missing N$ 3000 under the care of the secretary.
“Since then, the secretary Magdalena Iiyambo and the school’s principal Joe Sasa have been the responsible parties to deal with finances.
The school teachers had suspected misappropriation and misuse of finances by the school secretary who joined the school in 2019,” the letter stated.
The teachers told The Namibian that towards the end of 2022, the school head of department discovered missing pages in the receipt book.
“The matter was then brought up in the meeting and the school principal, acknowledged that he was aware of the missing pages after he was asked on 24 August 2022. Furthermore, one of the heads of department allegedly discovered missing pages from the same receipt book and this triggered the teachers that there may be a huge misuse in the school finances.
It is alleged after another discovery was made on the school funds Sasa was aware and never revealed it to the staff nor the management.
According to the committee the duplicates in the receipt book are blank while the original are torn out.
“In 2022, teachers observed that some learners were informed that they have not paid a specific year grade and when parents insisted that they have paid but could not provide receipts from years ago, they were requested by the secretary to pay again.
These issues have caused teachers to be suspicious and questioned the principal on why parents who have requested to pay again,” the letter entailed.
One of the impacted parents, Erastus Valombola, said he was forced to pay about N$1000 as voluntary contributions in order for his child to continue with school.
“I was highly disappointed in the school after he was forced to pay again for my child to stay in school,” Valombola added.
The Namibian reached out to the school principal who refused to comment further on the matter.
According to the ACC spokesperson Josephina Nghituwamata the agency is aware of the matter but due to lack of evidence the case has been closed.
“Yes, The Anti-Corruption Commission did receive a report on the matter.
Upon the review of this complaint, it was found to lack evidence to substantiate the allegations, which resulted in the closure of the file at the Commission.
The WhistleBlower was therefore advised to report the matter to the line Ministry,” Nghituwamata added.
Nghituwamata further added that each case reported to the commission is given a mandate to investigate once upon preliminary inquiry or review determined that it is worthy of criminal investigation.
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