Over 2000 students of Ghana’s Agriculture Colleges stand the risk of being arrested by officials of National Security for failing to refund allowances overpaid them by the Controller and Accountant General.
The students were paid an amount of GHc 9, 000 after protesting delays in the payment of their allowance.
They were subsequently ordered to refund the amount after another sum of GHc 11, 000 was mistakenly paid into their accounts by the Controller General.
The students say they are unable to refund the amount.
Spokesperson for the affected students, Andrews Dawuni , who is with the Veterinary College in Tamale said students were notified that they had been overpaid three weeks after they had resumed school.
“Over the holidays, Controller made a payment of over 11,000 Cedis into our respective accounts. Then three weeks later, school authorities alerted us that we had been overpaid. We have been asked to refund the monies.”
A letter from the Food and Agriculture Ministry indicated that the “amount involved in the over-payment should be refunded and paid back to the Bank of Ghana Suspense Account by Monday 28th March, 2016.”
“It should be noted that it is illegal and criminal for the students to continue to keep the monies. The monies belong to the Government of Ghana,” it added.
Sanctions
All affected students will attract the following sanctions if they fail to refund the monies by Monday March, 28, 2016
- Students will not be admitted to class with effect from Tuesday 29th March, 2016
- Any student who fails to attend classes for twenty days ceases to be a student and is summarily dismissed
- The National Security has been informed to arrest all affected students from Tuesday 29th March, 2016.
- The photographs and contact addresses of all affected students will be forwarded to the Head of Civil Service in Accra.
Source: www.citifmonline.com