Anne-Stine board fires school head
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday April 6, 2018 14:58
In a letter dated March 28, 2018, the board writes that, “Following the disciplinary proceedings against you, which were conducted on March 14 2018, the board of Sekolo Sa Anne-Stine also informed by the disciplinary findings has resolved that your relationship with the board has irredeemably broken down.
The board has decided to terminate your employment with immediate effect. You will be entitled to one-month salary in the lieu of notice plus days of leave that shall be determined by the board. You are therefore requested to surrender all equipment of the school with immediate effect and also advised not to conduct yourself as an employee of Sekolo Sa Anne-Stine”.
Ramosanta has confirmed action taken against him.
“It is true I am fired by the board because I was questioning some of the maladministration things done by some board members,” Ramosanta said.
Mmegi has learnt that the village leaders and tribe will convene a meeting today (Friday) to question the board about some of the things that are alleged to be happening there.
Last year, an inter-ministerial audit at Anne-Stine school uncovered startling business operation wherein the former board had opened a micro-lending scheme with interest set at 20%. This forced the district commissioner and some village leaders to appoint new board.
The services were rendered to school employees. Anne-Stine is a school for disabled children funded by government to the tune of P1.2 million every financial year. The monitoring and evaluation team that consisted of the then ministries of health and education and skills development undertook an audit, which exposed the rot in March 2015.
“To this end a total P187,752 has been withdrawn from the centre accounts,” reads a document from the Ministry of Health. The board responsible for this mess was elected out in 2015 after serving for two years.
The audit shows that the arrangement contravened provisions of financial institutions and procedures of the Botswana government, memorandum of understanding between Sekolo Sa Anne-Stine and Ministry of Health and Wellness, the policy guidelines for financial support to non-governmental organisation and the 1994 constitution of Sekolo Sa Anne-Stine.
It says given the impasse, especially that the ministries of Health and Education did not sanction this arrangement, the Ministry directed that the money be reimbursed to Sekolo Sa Anne-Stine forthwith. The outgoing board has also failed to hand over cellphones and laptops belonging to school.
Both committees did not do official handing over, now the incumbent board has inherited a financial mess.
“We do not have financial records on how the school was running. Even the issue of micro-lending, we do not know who still owed the school and those who had paid”.