PTAs ARE VOLUNTARY AND AUTONOMOUS BODIES (PAGE 29)

Story: Tim Dzamboe, Ho

The Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) in the Volta Region have described the directive by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to integrate all levies of second cycle institutions into school accounts as unlawful and an affront to the integrity of PTAs in the country.
They said they were not employees of the GES and that the GES had flouted the basic rights of the associations to exist as partners to the promotion of quality education.
It would be recalled that the GES circulated a letter signed by the Director–General, Mr Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, directing all levies of PTAs and related expenditure to be captured in the financial statements of schools although separate cash books could be kept for tracking of data.
The directive was to ensure transparency in the use of levies, since it had come to the notice of the GES that some PTA levies paid by students were recorded outside the school’s official accounting records.
The letter explained that in some situations the executives of PTAs had been the sole signatories to the bank accounts for the operation of the funds and since the PTA levies were being treated as public funds, they should be operated in line with all existing financial regulations.
According to the letter, all approved activities should be directed to the institutional accountant who would initiate the payment process and file all payment vouchers including appropriate attachments for auditing.
It directed further that the signatories to the bank accounts for operating the levies should be the headmaster, the accountant and the PTA chairman to ensure that laid down procedures were followed.
A PTA chairman, Togbui Duklui Attipoe V, said PTAs were voluntary organisations which sought to support the government to enhance the development of their institutions.
He noted that PTAs were autonomous bodies and should not allow the GES to use bureaucratic means to frustrate efforts of members towards the welfare of institutions.
Togbui Attipoe threatened to seek redress at the law courts, if the directive was not withdrawn by March this year because it was not in the interest of the growth and development of PTAs.
For his part, a PTA secretary , Mr F.K. Ovulley, said the directive would mar the prevailing healthy relationship between PTAs and headmasters, since it would be difficult to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of the levies.
He said they saw the attempt to take over PTA funds by assigning headmasters and accountants as signatories as a way to control and frustrate the development efforts of the PTAs and thereby render them ineffective and inefficient in the long run.
Mr Bright Agbesi-Akati, for his part, debunked the assertion that PTA levies were public funds and pointed out that they were private funds belonging to their membership and collected on their behalf as school management.
He said auditing of private funds were done in accordance with rules and regulations and constitutions of individual associations and not by the Auditor-General or any of his agents.