Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh
The Minister of Education, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh, yesterday publicly reprimanded officials of the National Accreditation Board (NAB) during the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sitting.
He noted that the manner in which it discharges its duties had resulted in a lot of petitions against it.
Officials of NAB, led by the Executive Secretary, Kwame Dattey, were at the PAC sitting with Dr Opoku Prempeh and the Minister of State in-charge of Tertiary Education, Prof Kwesi Yankah, to answer queries in the Auditor-General’ s report of 2015
The NAB officials came under fire when a member of the committee and National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament (MP) for Karaga, Dandaawa Sualihu Alhassan, enquired from them as to whether they have a very effective internal control system to help nib in the bud infractions at the Board as well as some of the tertiary institutions like the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
The MP had queried the effectiveness of the internal control system and had a lame answer from the NAB officials that the system is average. But the Minister of Education asked them to be realistic and frank about the ‘loose’ control system, saying that it (control system) is not the best.
The minister said that he was not very happy about what was going on at NAB, observing that there had been several petitions against it.
“Mr Chairman, those who are being paid to work are not doing their work,” the minister said, claiming that he did not see the need for them to continue working, even if those found culpable are surcharged.
Napo said he had instructed Professor Yankah to convene an emergency meeting with the NAB and other stakeholders to look at their inadequacies and the way forward.
The Auditor-General’s report detected that NAB paid Board and committee allowances amounting to GH¢726,886 without a ministerial approval in 2014. The Board also failed to submit its Internally Generated Fund (IGF) amounting to GH¢4,604,496, to the ministry of finance
The NAB was also faulted for using GH¢5,139 to pay salaries and staff benefits of two staff members while its Information Technology Governance Policy was completely non-existent.
According to the Auditor-General’s report, there is no Information Technology strategic and steering Committee; no IT security policy and IT strategic plan that support business requirements.
The executive secretary in a response, said the management was doing its best but accepted the concerns of the minister in good faith.
He said that currently, the IT department of NAB is very active and that all the necessary corrective measures had been put in place following the recommendations of the Auditor-General.
Mr Kwame Dattey added that NAB’s website always has updated information, with now 123 accredited tertiary institutions.
By Thomas Fosu Jnr