Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu, Haruna Iddrisu
Members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday approved an amount of GH¢790,224,149 for the secretariat of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) and the associated formula for the operation of the secretariat in 2017 and subsequent distribution of the fund.
During the debate on the formula, the minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) MPs, led by the leader, Haruna Iddrisu, strongly objected to the amount allocated for this year, saying that it is inadequate to meet all the necessary requirements for GETFund projects.
Out of the amount, tertiary education has been allocated GH¢255.5 million, secondary education has been allocated GH¢242 million, basic education: GH¢222.8 million, Ministry of Education and GETFund secretariat: GH¢50 million while GH¢15.1 million has been allocated for MPs’ emergency projects with the remaining GH¢4.4 million assigned for monitoring.
There is however, an outstanding arrear of GH¢94,554,979 from last year’s allocation under the erstwhile National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration to be paid in addition to the one allocated for this year.
The minority leader said that over the years, the allocation for the GETFund has been increasing but when the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over power it has slashed the fund considerably – reducing the figure from GH¢1.02 billion in 2016 to GH¢790.2 million.
According to Mr Haruna Iddrisu, under the NDC government, GH¢739 million was allocated to the GETFund in 2014, GH¢843.8 million in 2015 and GH¢1.02 billion in 2016 but the capping of statutory funds by the current government had severely affected the allocation for this year.
Responding, the majority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, said that the minority members must know that during their time inflation and interest rates were very high and prices of things were skyrocketing so the money allocated for the use of the GETFund was eventually affected by those economic conditions.
He said since the NPP took over power, it had been able to stabilize the economy with all economic indicators remaining favourable and so the money allocated by the government will have better impact on education in the country.
He noted that during the time of the NDC, parliament was only approving those moneys but in real terms, the actual amounts released by the government fell short of the approved money, leaving arrears all the time.
He indicated that with the moneys approved by parliament, the government will have to pay the outstanding GH¢94.4 million left by NDC in addition to the GETFund secretariat so in actual fact, the government will be paying an amount of GH¢878 million which is big enough to meet most of the requirements under the GETFund this year.
The deputy majority leader and MP for Dome/Kwabenya, Adwoa Safo, said it’s heart-warming to note that the government this year will use some of the GETFund money to fence schools with high risk of encroachment, to provide white boards in schools, to build a number of kindergarten schools in addition to the regular promotion of the study of Mathematics, Science and Technology, promotion of computer, vocational and technical education and training.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr