POLLING STATION SCHOOLS COMPLAIN OF NEGLECT BY NBSSI.. .Over grant of CAPBuSS loans
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 the polling stations during the upcoming general elections.
The Coalition said the NBSSI has not treated members of the Coalition fairly and want 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 Program Business support Scheme (CAPBuSS), to alleviate the suffering of businesses which have been impacted by the disease.
The administration of this all-important scheme was entrusted in the hands of 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 that 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 indicating the CAPBuSS loan has 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 (GHC0.00) and wondered an organization like 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 hope.
Mr. Yeboah, who is also the Proprietor of Leaders of Tomorrow Academy at Feyiase in the Bosomtwe district of Ashanti, said it would have been ideal for NBSSI to deny the applicants, on grounds of ineffective application 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 the subsequent to rectify the huge error even though it is common knowledge that all the amount allocated for the scheme has not been disbursed and questioned why the money is still sitting idle in the coffers while those it is meant to alleviate some suffering of a sort are going through an ordeal.
Mr. Yeboah disclosed that some of the members of the Coalition have 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 teeming number of teachers who have not been paid for the past nine months besides huge indebtedness from debts, 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 parastatal 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 exercise 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, 7th elections since 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 COVID19.
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 has always given to the state for free.
Until their concerns are addressed the Coalition have 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.
Pix: Peter Kofi Yeboah – National Convener of Coalition of Polling Station Private schools
