The Ghana School of Survey and Mapping has been operating with an expired accreditation given by National Accreditation Board to run its programmes since 2015.
The revelation is highlighted in the 2020 Auditor-General’s Report on the audit of statutory boards and corporations.
According to the Audit report, ‘’Our review showed that accreditation given the institution by National Accreditation Board to run the programmes expired since 2015’’.
The report said the continuous operation of the school without accreditation would affect the credibility of certificates presently issued to successful students.
It said the school is opened to the public and presently, has 380 students pursuing HND and Certificate programs in Survey and Mapping.
The report said the ‘’National Accreditation Board Act 2007 (Act774) requires that institutions carry out real accreditation exercises in respect of the institution of each programme at least once every 5 years, adding that’’ Section 8 of Act 774 states “any institution that fails to ensure that the programmes are renewed but continue to operate may be sanctioned.”
It added that ‘’To attain the standard and improve quality of certificates offered, we recommended that efforts should be made to renew the accreditation of the school.
This will also help to avoid any penalty that may be imposed on the school by National Accreditation Board’’.
The School of Surveying and Mapping as a Public Tertiary Institution offers both Diploma and Certificate Education in the field of Land Surveying, Cartography, Photogrammetry, Digital Mapping and Geographic Information System, Lithography and any allied disciplines as determined by the Board of Governors.
*Reactions*
The report said during their encounter with the Management, they responded that the school was unable to satisfy all the requirements stipulated for reaccreditation by National Accreditation Board due to constraints and challenges after the institutional authorization expired in December 2018.
The Management also stated that most of the requirements have been met and all efforts are being made by the Board and Management to secure the reaccreditation status for the school as soon as possible.
However, the Audit service urged the school Management to expedite action to get the school reaccredited without further delay.
With Legal Framework
It had also been established that the Training School operates without a Legal Framework, whereby for an effective management and running of an institution, it is required that there should be a legal framework to regulate and govern the operational activities of that institution.
The report stated that ‘’We noted that Survey and Mapping Division established and run a school (Ghana School of Survey and Mapping) for the training of surveyors without any legal framework or regulations’’.
The Audit report noted that ‘’With the Minister and liaise with Parliament so that a legislation instrument could be prepared to legalize the school has made the school continue operating in a vacuum. There is, therefore, no clear path for the school to follow as there are no guidelines, rules, and regulations to control and regulate activities of the school’’.
‘’We recommended that effort should be made to regularize the existence of the school immediately for its aims and objectives to be achieved.
Management responded that the school is empowered with GSSM Act 2008-10-02 to operate, the Act is yet to be approved and gazetted, and that the new Board of Governors of the School are making all efforts to get the Act gazetted as soon as possible’’ the report stated.
BY Daniel Bampoe