Education Ministry denies it owes companies, individuals GH₵6bn under FSHS programme

By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH

The Ministry of Education has debunked claims by the Minority caucus in Parliament that the government through the ministry owes over six billion Ghana Cedis (Ghc6b) to organisations and individuals involved in the Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy.

The Minority caucus in Parliament claimed that the government has failed to pay over GH₵300 million used in the procurement of GH₵1.3 million tablets for the “One Student, One Laptop” initiative.

They again alleged that the West African Examinations Council is owed GH₵224 million.

Reacting to these allegations, the spokesperson for the Education Ministry, Mr. Kwasi Kwarteng, labelled the claims as unfounded.

“Let me hasten to clarify that the said amount being owed by the Ministry of an excess of 6 billion Ghana Cedis, as claimed by the Minority in Parliament is not accurate. The Ministry would have been more grateful if they had given more clarifications and details on where they had such figures from. Because from our records, we do not have such representations even in terms of the outstanding arrears we owe our vendors, organisations and individuals we work with. If you look at the claims made by the Minority, reference is made to the government owing the supplier for the “One Student, One Tablet Initiative” he said.

Mr. Kwarteng explained further by saying “But, clearly if you want to juxtapose that claim with the contract the government have with the supplier, at the end of the day, the distribution is in phases, so at every point, the government will pay based on performance.” 

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