STC dismisses two staff members implicated in ‘Money Over Human Lives’ investigative piece

The State Transport Company (STC) Driving School, a subsidiary of Intercity STC, has dismissed two staff members, a receptionist and a Driving Instructor implicated in the ‘Money Over Human Lives’ investigative piece by Corruption Watch’s Francisca Enchill.

The two were initially interdicted following the release of the documentary, but subsequently sacked after internal investigations found them culpable of breaking the company’s disciplinary rules as well as causing financial loss to the company while endangering human lives in the process for personal financial gains.

Speaking on the Corruption Watch show on Joy FM, Rev Paul Boachie-Yiadom, Director, Bethel Training and consultancy, Managers of the State Transport Company (STC) Driving School, disclosed that the action is meant to serve as a deterrence to other staff members to make them aware that anyone found acting contrary to the principles of STC would be sacked and possibly made to face prosecution.

Rev Boachie-Yiadom also disclosed that the school, as part of actions taken, has made some procedural reforms.

According to him, prior to the release of the documentary, the lists of trained applicants were handed to a driving instructor together with money to be paid to DVLA on behalf of the school. This after review was found to have gaps which could allowed rot, hence the procedural reform.

The new procedure, he said has cut out the Driving Instructors from having any physical contact with money and the list. They have introduced a separation of job module where a different staff is assigned the duty to submit the list and make the payment after which the receipt of payment is presented to the office for another independent staff to crosscheck the list with the students actually trained to be sure that the amount paid corresponds with the list.

He also disclosed that students will now be required to register attendance on every day of tuition which will not be supervised by the driving instructors to ensure that there are checks and balances in the various steps.

Speaking about his first reaction to the documentary, Rev. Boachie-Yiadom disclosed that he was left in a state of shock at the first view of the ‘Money Over Human Lives’ documentary as according to him, the behaviour captured in the investigative piece did not align with the ethics and moral philosophy of running the training school.

“In fact, the first time I saw the video, I was indeed taken aback, it really surprised me. I was shocked to the bone,” he said.

According to him, although the school is run on profit generation, their core mandate is to support road safety efforts to minimise carnage and loss of lives through accidents on roads.

“We believe that if we train drivers and we do not train them well, the possibility of a driver killing us one day is also there, so all our staff and everyone that gets involved in the training have this mindset,” he noted.

Rev Boachie-Yiadom disclosed that the management of the STC school, prior to the release of the documentary, had reasons to be concerned as they had observed that their revenue kept dwindling for some time. Management, however, could not figure out the cause until the release of the ‘Money Over Human Lives’ expose’ which answered many questions about the mysterious drop in revenue.

He expressed gratitude to Corruption Watch for the investigative piece as it is an eyeopener for management.

He also disclosed that management plans to unearth how the implicated STC staff managed to beat both their system and that of DVLA unnoticed.