By : Prof. Quist-Aphetsi Kester
Ghana Communication Technology University (GCTU), once envisioned as a hub for digital transformation and academic excellence, has instead allegedly devolved into a stronghold of academic corruption, financial mismanagement, and orchestrated cover-ups. Under the current leadership, the university has become a symbol of institutional decay, with systemic fraud and money laundering activities allegedly pointing to the existence of a criminal enterprise entrenched within its administration.
Money Laundering, Foreign Currency Abuse, and Procurement Fraud Tied to GCTU Management and a Kotobabi Bank Branch
Credible intelligence reveals that a bank branch in Kotobabi has been playing a central role in laundering public funds for top management at Ghana Communication Technology University (GCTU). According to credible internal reports, this branch has been facilitating the conversion of Ghanaian cedis into US dollars, which are then illegally disbursed in cash to select members of GCTU management, especially the Vice-Chancellor (VC), under the guise of rental payments and executive allowances. These dollar transactions are executed outside official government financial controls, and constitute a clear breach of the Bank of Ghana’s foreign exchange regulations.
Moreover, a specific finance staff member at GCTU has been identified as the primary courier and agent of these transactions, running errands for the Vice-Chancellor and operating in direct defiance of financial transparency protocols. These unauthorized activities not only bypass public accountability mechanisms, but also raise serious concerns about tax evasion, foreign exchange violations, and the concealment of illicit funds.
In parallel, the procurement unit at GCTU has become a cartel, controlled by close allies of the VC. All meaningful procurement decisions, including tendering, vendor selection, and pricing, are channeled through a known crony, whose main role is to inflate prices and approve low-quality goods and services. The result is systemic looting under the cover of institutional purchasing, where basic classroom furniture, IT devices, and construction materials are procured at inflated rates, often with no regard for quality or need. This institutionalized fraud not only defrauds the state and students, but also erodes public confidence in the credibility of higher education governance in Ghana.
Meanwhile, an official ensuring compliance with the Public Procurement Act has been deliberately sidelined and relegated to the role of a mere storekeeper. This strategic demotion was clearly orchestrated to eliminate internal oversight and pave the way for unmonitored, scandalous procurement transactions. A crony of the VC was empowered to facilitate all procurement processes. This has created a fertile ground for price inflation, ghost supplies, and fraudulent contract awards, all to the detriment of public funds and institutional integrity.
The Larger Criminal Network: Looting Through Procurement, Scholarships, and Appointments
GCTU has reportedly become a laundromat for public funds, with lavish expenditures on unnecessary foreign travel, luxury housing allowances, and procurement contracts directed to cronies. The document outlines:
• Frequent international trip per official of as high as $1,200 per night allowance, with little or no academic benefit.
• Extreme rental allowance** cashed in dollars per official with records as high as $36,000 to officials who live in their own private residence. They collect rents for staying in their personal houses from the university.
• Scholarships are awarded verbally to close associates without merit-based procedures.
• Removal and tampering of academic and financial records under the direction of compromised administrators to conceal wrongdoing and block audit trails.
• Ghost procurement and inflated pricing of low-quality goods*, including IT equipment, office furniture, and washroom renovations.
These irregularities point to a *syndicate-like operation* within GCTU, with deliberate institutional design to misappropriate public funds, manipulate records, and shield culprits from accountability.
Academic Extortion and Systematic Records Manipulation to Enable Fraud and Extortion at GCTU
At Ghana Communication Technology University (GCTU), a dangerous pattern of academic and financial exploitation has taken root, with students increasingly falling victim to deliberate grade manipulation, file tampering, and extortion schemes. A particularly disturbing layer of this criminal enterprise is the targeted extortion of students. Students nearing graduation are often told their grades* or admission documents** are *missing and must pay to have them “restored.” It is now common for students to have their grades “mysteriously” go missing, especially during their final year, only to be later approached and told that they must pay fees or bribes to have the grades “retrieved” or corrected. Some are coerced into paying under threats of delayed graduation or complete expulsion from the system, an illegal practice that has left many students emotionally and financially devastated.
Worse still, folders and payment records are intentionally misplaced by complicit staff in both the Registry and Finance Office to cover up embezzlement and to create artificial debt traps for students. There have been several cases where Level 400 students are told they must provide receipts from Level 100, which the university itself has failed to archive or track. simply because the university refuses to keep or retrieve proper records. Failure to provide these receipts leads to unlawful demands for repayment of long-settled fees. Graduates, some of whom have successfully completed and left the institution, are being harassed with mobile messages from the Finance Office, demanding that they pay outstanding fees that are neither documented nor justifiable.
This malicious exploitation of students, through fabricated academic debts and missing financial records, points to a well-organized internal extortion ring embedded within GCTU’s administration. It represents a gross violation of student rights, academic ethics, and financial governance, and calls for urgent criminal investigation, audit intervention, and disciplinary prosecution of all personnel involved in these heinous acts.
Sex-for-Grades and Admission Fraud, Now Cleansed by Collusion
One of the most alarming cases involves a Head of Department (HoD) previously suspended after investigations into allegations of sex-for-grades and serial admission fraud. However, in a shocking turn of events, this individual’s personnel file was reportedly alleged to have been wiped clean. Allegations suggest that this erasure was not accidental but orchestrated through *collusion with the Human Resource (HR) *Directorate, with the direct involvement of the accused HoD himself.
This deliberate cleansing of disciplinary records is not only an obstruction of justice but a clear act of document fraud, potentially in violation of public sector regulations and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) statutes.
Disinformation Campaigns to Derail Government Investigations
Now, this same individual is reportedly spearheading a misinformation campaign, aimed at discrediting ongoing government forensic audits and oversight investigations into GCTU. By spreading false rumors about government activities and actively undermining the credibility of the current Council Chairman, this disgraced HoD is working to protect the embattled Vice-Chancellor, whose tenure has been marred by scandal.
This effort to sow public doubt and divert attention from credible investigations is nothing less than an attempt to interfere with governmental oversight, a serious offense under both public service ethics and criminal law.
Legal Implications and Statutory Violations
The acts described herein constitute violations of multiple laws and statutes, including:
• Conspiracy to Commit Fraud
• Obstruction of Justice
• Tampering with Public Records
• Foreign Currency Laundering (per BoG and GRA regulations)
• Academic Racketeering
• Procurement Act Violations
• Violation of BoG Anti-Money Laundering Directives
Urgent Recommendations and National Action Points
We hereby call upon all relevant state institutions and regulatory bodies to take immediate and coordinated action:
1. Bank of Ghana (BoG)
• Launch an immediate compliance and forensic audit of the Kotobabi branch implicated in laundering GCTU funds through unauthorized foreign exchange transactions;
• Hold all bank personnel and collaborating university officers criminally accountable under Ghana’s Anti-Money Laundering Act and Foreign Exchange Act.
2. Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO)
• Freeze the bank accounts of all implicated individuals pending the outcome of investigations;
• Investigate suspicious transactions, asset acquisitions, and property holdings of GCTU top officials.
3. Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) and the University Council
• Suspend all implicated university officials (including the Vice-Chancellor and HoD) pending full audit reports;
• Initiate an external forensic audit into scholarships, procurement, admissions, and academic records.
4. Ministry of Education
• Launch a ministerial inquiry into the regulatory failure that enabled such long-standing abuse;
• Revoke administrative autonomy from the current GCTU leadership until proper governance structures are restored.
5. Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee
• Summon the GCTU Council and VC to publicly account for these gross misappropriations and abuses;
• Include this case in the national debate on reforming tertiary education governance in Ghana.
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