The Coalition of Polling Station Private Schools has complained of neglect by the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) and threatened to impede polling at such centres during the upcoming general elections.
The Coalition said the NBSSI had not treated members of the Coalition fairly and wanted to draw the attention of the President to it for immediate redress without any further delay, or they would not make their premises available for voting in the December polls.
In a statement issued in Kumasi and signed by its National Convener, Mr. Peter Kofi Yeboah, in the event of the COVID-19, the President launched the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme Business Support Scheme (CAPBuSS), to alleviate the suffering of businesses which had been impacted by the disease.
The administration of this all-important scheme was entrusted into the hands of the NBSSI, and that a sizeable number of the population, including private schools, who arguably, happen to be the hardest hit institutions regarding the impact of the COVID-19, applied for the CAPBuSS, yet the NBSSI had allegedly treated the applicants unfairly against the fact that President Akufo-Addo specially mentioned private schools as one of the target institutions to be acted upon expeditiously.
The statement said when the window for the applications was opened, NBSSI, after their appraisal of the applications, sent text messages to the applicants indicating the approval of their loans and that the CAPBuSS loan had been approved, and that applicants will be contacted by NBSSI/Partner banks this week to complete and access approved funds.
It said surprisingly, the approved amount for a section of the applicants, who went to their offices to access their approved loans, received zero Ghana cedis (GH¢0.00) and wondered how an organisation like the NBSSI could collate applications, appraised them, form a committee to do the approval, all at a cost to the taxpayer, and approve zero amounts to its applicants, only to dash the envisaged hopes.
Mr. Yeboah, who is also the Proprietor of Leaders of Tomorrow Academy at Feyiase in the Bosomtwe District of the Ashanti Region, said it would have been ideal for the NBSSI to deny the applicants on grounds of ineffective applications, rather than making this outrageous mess out of themselves.
According to the Coalition, they expected that whatever amount was available would have been equitably shared to all the applicants, thus cleared in the name of fairness, rather than embark on selective and discriminatory disbursements, leaving the rest to suffer when the impact of the COVID-19 is across board.
The Convener bemoaned the subsequent fruitless efforts to rectify the huge error, even though it is common knowledge that the amount allocated for the scheme had not been disbursed, and questioned why the money was still sitting idle in the coffers while those it was meant to alleviate from sufferings are going through ordeals.
Mr. Yeboah disclosed that some of the members of the Coalition had already committed suicide, while others are dying prematurely as a result of their inability to satisfy their medications, not to talk about the sorrowful plight of a teeming number of teachers who have not been paid for the past nine months, besides huge indebtedness from debts and mandatory bills to pay till schools reopen.
The Leaders of Tomorrow Proprietor mentioned that most of such private schools are polling stations and registration centres for elections and other para-statal activities at no cost to the state, whilst the schools foot the expenses on repairs of furniture and other infrastructure that are messed up by their officers and their customers, as well as footing the cost of electricity power and water during such national exercises on their premises.
In the face of the neglect by the NBSSI, members of the Coalition would not hesitate to close their doors to the Electoral Commission for the impending December, 7 elections, since its members are not in the position to repair any damages that may occur to our properties in this impoverished state they find themselves as the result of the COVID-19.
The Coalition has, therefore, appealed to the President of the Republic to intervene for the NBSSI to attend favourably to them to commensurate with the gesture it had always given to the state for free.
Until their concerns are addressed, the Coalition has adopted the slogan “NO CAPBuSS, NO VOTING” in protest of the alleged NCSSI neglect, and threatened to keep their premises closed to the upcoming elections in view of the said development and utter neglect, Mr. Yeboah stressed.
The post Some private schools complain of neglect by NBSSI appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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