Education minister seeks evidence on GESS fund scandal
The Lakes State Minister for Education, Kongor Deng Kongor, has requested details about the Girls Education South Sudan (GESS) funds which Yirol East County Education Director, Sabino Mabor Aleng, has been accused of misappropriating.
In an interview with The City Review yesterday, Kongor said he had ordered the county education director to return and gather the facts from the county and report them to him.
He said he was willing to listen to the Lekakudu Payam supervisor, Mager Achiengwei, over the matter.
Kongor stressed that he needed the information to report correct information to the media.
He blamed the Payam education supervisors for not reporting the case to him directly before trooping to social media to “fan hearsay’’.
“I wonder why they didn’t write it as a letter and bring it to my office. Now it is appearing as if it were hearsay. They would have brought it to my attention. The only thing is that most of the teachers are volunteers, and they don’t have salaries, ” the minister said.
“We want our papers to be consumed with the truth, but reporting with a lot of information means, later on, people will come and get the truth after lies are in the air, I don’t think this will help in our cooperation with the community.”
He added: “They are given teachers’ grants, but it does not satisfy them because it is little money. Waiting for almost 12 months, and then having the teachers’ incentives come, does not help. The teachers’ fee, comes in after three months. “
Corruption allegations
The fourteen Yirol East County Payam supervisors on Wednesday appealed to the state and national ministry of general education to launch an investigation into the misappropriation of GESS’s “impact payment” for teachers and “girls cash transfer.”
After posting the corruption allegations on social media, Mager Achiengwei Agou, who served at the Lekakudu Payam as the education supervisor, alleged that he was receiving threats from a committee formed by the county education director Sabino Mabor Aleng.
“We want the state or national government to create a committee to come and investigate this, or else they have to remove this man because this man cannot make any change. This is the only solution,” he said.
For fear of getting sacked, three of the 14 Payam supervisors and deputies asked for anonymity in reporting their comments. However, they sided with Mager, saying he never lied that the “community contribution” and the “impact payment” funds were swindled.
“We have 79 teachers and three schools that did not receive incentives. We collected about SSP4, 000,000 from schools and gave it to the county, including percentages for the state, we did not receive the quantity we were supposed to receive, ” said the one Payam supervisor.
Another Payam supervisor alleged the teachers who were called “added teachers” did not receive their incentives.
“We heard that there was something called ‘added teachers’ money” [which] was detained. For example, if you are enrolled as a new teacher this year, you will not be given the money. Although you are a present teacher, you will be considered as an added teacher. Those who were considered as additional teachers were not paid,’’ he revealed.
He doubted whether the headteachers surely paid the girls their GESS money or not. He suspected the headteachers might have paid for ghost names that they created.
When asked whether his accusation was true, Mager said, “All these things, my brother, I am telling you, he is an old man, I cannot just say words which are not happening; I have to tell you the fact.” These things are evidence that even anyone who can come can find them out there. “
CED responds
The Yirol County Director, Sabino Mabor Aleng, in an interview with the City Review, said the money was paid, and the beneficiaries have not complained so far.
He accused the supervisor of lacking ethics, and qualifications for the position, thus, blaming the one who employed him for making a great mistake.
