A recent testimony given by former Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, has linked a fraudulent payment for the placement of a student into a category “A” school in 2022 to the login access of the Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum.

According to the testimony, Professor Opoku-Amankwa was one of only two persons with unfettered access to the computer system and had the ability to place or approve the placement of students into category “A” schools.

Access to protocol placement into the most prestigious senior high schools was restricted to only the Minister of Education and the Director General of the GES in an effort to prevent the payment of money for placement into category “A” schools.

The Ministry of Education set up a committee to probe allegations of corruption in the school placement system after receiving a complaint from the Ministry of National Security.

The Fourth Estate has obtained exclusive access to the report of the six-member committee.

The report states that “an amount of GH¢7000 had been charged to place someone at Wesley Girls or Achimota School” and that a probe of the log report on the system showed that the placement was done using the Minister's access, which was being handled by a Ms Vera Amoah.

Professor Opoku-Amankwa also told The Fourth Estate that he had the ability to see placements approved or made by the Minister of Education and that the Minister could also see his actions in the system.

However, a week after the 2022 placement started, his access to the system was revoked without explanation.

The technical consultant of the school placement system informed the committee that the decision on who should be granted access to protocol placement on the computerized system was communicated to him through a memo generated by the Free SHS Coordinator and signed by the Minister.

However, it was later discovered that the Minister made changes and instructions that were not documented.

An Assistant Research Officer in charge of procurement at the Free SHS Secretariat, Mohammed Kamel Issa, was given access to category C schools to help resolve placement issues, but two weeks later, his access was revoked.

According to the report, the Coordinator later informed Kamel that the Minister wanted to meet with him, but the meeting never took place and Kamel was told that the Minister no longer needed him.

The investigative committee also discovered other instances of corruption. A member of the Operations team at the Free SHS secretariat, Bright Appiah Kubi, reported that he received information that a parent had paid GH¢20,000 for their child to be placed in Wesley Girls to study science, but because he did not have access to the log report, he was unable to determine who made the placement.

In the past, Appiah had the ability to log in and verify who made a placement that was paid for. Before the Ministry of Education set up its investigative committee, Professor Opoku-Amankwa wrote to the National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police to report his concerns about the school placement system.

The Ministry of Education declined to comment when The Fourth Estate requested comment through its public relations officer, but stated that it would “study the investigative work, collaborate with relevant state institutions, and address the issues raised accordingly.”