An American software company is concerned it may receive an unjustified bad rep after several million dollars in Ministry of Education funds, supposedly paid to the company, went missing.
Corrupt Bahamas Education Ministry officials said they spent $6 million dollars on software on student information software (SIS) licensed by Software Technology Inc (STI).
The software company that the money supposedly was given to denies receiving anywhere near that amount. Andrew Byer, STI executive vice president of business development, said the Bahamas government paid STI exactly $1,037,631 over a five year period between 2006 and 2011.
The software manages student grades, attendance records, class scheduling, and other school data, prooviding real-time access to student records for teachers, students, parents and administrators. Eighteen schools are currently on the STI system.
When questioned about the discrepancy, Lionel Sands, director of education, said he was “uncertain” about the full expenditure.
Mr Byer said that if $6 million was spent by the Ministry of Education with his company, he’d sure like to know where the other $5 million went.
