Re: Ghost Schools In Sindh : Childern of Sindh have no luck
Nadra identifies 2,007 ghost schools costing Rs7 billion
In a startling disclosure, a latest verification by National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) identified 2,007 ghost schools in four provinces fraudulently being run under a project Basic Education Community School (BECS) costing Rs7 billion, sources told this scribe here on Wednesday.
Sources said National Education Foundation (NEF) that introduced BECS project decided to contact Nadra for verification of NIC of the teaching and administrative staff members associated with these schools on July 27th, 2011.
“The report now presented by Nadra showed that names and NIC of officials working with 2,007 BECS schools are fake that raised the question how many people were involved in this illegal act and how much money they managed to secure on fake information out of total Rs4.5 billion so far spent on this project,” sources said.
An official said given the grave situation Board of Governors (BoG) of NEF in its meeting held on March 12 has decided to close down all these ghost schools but surprisingly it was not decided to probe this scam involving billions of rupees.
He said it was also decided in the meeting to restructure internal audit mechanism and six regional offices at Lahore, Multan, Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta and Gilgit would be established to serve this purpose.
According to official data, a total of Rs22 million were allocated to monitor BECS schools across the country and for this purpose some 130 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) were also involved to monitor 3,000 BECS schools in Punjab, 58 NGOs to monitor 2,655 schools in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 13 NGOs to monitor 259 schools in Balochistan and 40% of total 1,100 schools were also monitored by NGOs in Sindh.
An FIA official, who is working with its anti-corruption branch, told this correspondent that an investigation into a scam involving millions of rupees against one of the top BECS officials have been referred to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on December 12 last year.
NEF Managing Director Nasir Hayat said that the report sent by Nadra showed 2,007 ghost schools and soon after receiving this report BoG of NEF has ordered to close down all these schools.
To a question, he said that the BoG at the moment has not ordered any inquiry into this scam but “I have personally made a request to thoroughly probe this issue as it has earned a bad name for our organisation.”
Talking to this correspondent, Federal Minister for Professional and Technical Training Riaz Hussain Pirzada said that the latest report has pointed out weak monitoring system so, “We have decided to introduce a new monitoring mechanism and agreements with all such NGOs that showed poor performance with regard to monitoring of BECS schools would be cancelled.”
He said many irregularities and corruption cases have been brought to his notice, adding, “I assure that thorough investigation would be conducted to identify those involved in running ghost schools.”
Riaz Pirzada said the BECS schools have high importance especially in far-flung areas and new measures would help improve their educational standard and administrative affairs as well
Nadra identifies 2,007 ghost schools costing Rs7 billion - thenews.com.pk