The minister of general education in Lakes State has ordered the immediate closure of three secondary schools and the detention of two teachers for allegedly withdrawing and misappropriating capitation grants without consulting his ministry.
Minster Nelson Makoi Makur told Radio Tamazuj earlier in the week that the matter was being investigated by the police and identified the detained headteachers as Nelson Mabor Aliap and his deputy Abraham Maker Jalla from Pacong Secondary School.
“The matter is in the hands of the police. When I came in as a minister, I had to ascertain and assess the functional schools and those that are not functional,” he explained. “Some schools just existed as projects and were to be opened only after we built classrooms, so they are not entitled to receive capitation grants. That is why I said before that if they received capitation grants from the account, they have to come back to the state education ministry for more consultations.”
“They received the money and spent it without consultations with us,” Makoi said.
For his part, the detained headmaster of Pacong Secondary School, Nelson Mabor Aliap, said he used all the necessary legal and financial procedures by obtaining an approval letter from the education ministry to withdraw SSP 1.9 million of the capitation grant from the bank.
He said SSP 1.4 million was used to buy items like chairs, tables, school stamps, and food for the school.
“I have a balance of SSP 500,000 which is meant for teachers’ incentives. SSP 1.4 million is already spent for buying school items and there are vouchers and receipts,” he explained. “After the withdrawal of money from the bank, the minister went to Pacong, Aduel, and Marial Manasseh secondary schools and after that went on the radio and declared the closure of the three secondary schools and rang me and instructed me to bring SSP 1.9 million capitation grant in cash and not in vouches but I told him that the money is already receipted. When I went to him in the morning and explained, he called the Military intelligence personnel, and my deputy and I were taken to police custody.”
Mabor said that he took the remaining SSP 500,000 to the police station, but the minister ordered the police to hold them till they refunded the entire amount that was withdrawn from the bank.
“The minister told the police to bring him the money (SSP 500,000) and keep us in custody until we refund the SSP 1.4 million that has been spent,” he said. “Now we are in police custody without being investigated and the 500,000 which remained for teachers’ incentives was taken by the police to Education Minister Nelson Makoi.”
Meanwhile, Daniel Laat Kon, a civil society activist in Lakes State, confirmed the detention of the headteachers for alleged misappropriated of funds.
“I went to them (headteachers) in Rumbek Central Police Station to find out why they were arrested and they confirmed that it was due to the withdrawal of SSP 1.9 million, of which they spent 1.2 million to motivate teachers and buy some scholastic materials,” he said. “We are even confused whether the misappropriation of capitation grants is the cause of the closure of the three schools, making them none existing schools, or it is because of no learning premises and enough learners in those three schools.”