Fraudster Sells Teachers Career Progression

Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday April 23, 2018 15:04

MoBE Anti-Corruption Unit acting coordinator, Kesianetswe Moleofhi told The Monitor that they have since last year been attempting to arrest a person they believe to be a man swindling teachers of their hard-earned cash out of desperation for promotion and transfer. The person always has so much information about the teachers awaiting transfers and promotion. He usually targets times when there are vacancies and researches about those he wants to swindle. He calls school heads claiming to be an official from the ministry and obtains information about his target before confronting them, he said. He said they believe it is one person involved in many cases as they have noticed similarities in all the cases.

Moleofhi said they have thus far received four cases from Gaborone, two in Letlhakane, two in Molepolole, one in Bobirwa and one in Kanye. He, however, said the reports were from those who had not paid and had no idea of how many people could have fallen for the trap.

It is very difficult to arrest the person as he only speaks with his targets through the phone and is paid between P2,000 and P2,500 using ewallet. He then destroys the simcards. We also suspect that it could be someone within the ministry or someone with an insider in the ministry as he always has accurate information on his prey, he said.

Moleofhi said they have in the recent past fired an officer who extended contracts for temporary teachers at a fee. The said officer called a temporary teacher offering her a contract extension for a fee.

The teacher told her parents who then called the DCEC who set him a trap by giving the teacher money to pay for contract extension. The officer was then arrested and charged. We then found a diary with a list of those he had helped and those he was still pursuing, he said. He said they are investigating a similar matter at Central region.

Moleofhi called on teachers to report any suspicious calls they receive to their school heads. He cautioned teachers that promotions and transfers are done following laid down procedures.