It was a moment on the floor of parliament when the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, was expected to provide answers to issues related to his sector, but a question from Dr. Abed Bandim, the MP for Bunkpurugu, did not receive quite the response.
Questioning the minister on issues related to abandoned GETFund projects, Dr. Bandim asked Dr. Adutwum, “Why have some GETFund projects stalled at the Nakpanduri Business Senior High School and the Bunkpurugu Technical Senior High School?”
Expecting a response from the minister, who is also a colleague is parliament, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum only indicated that the projects, which are at various stages of completion, have stalled due to the lack of funds from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
The projects in question include a dining hall and kitchen block at the Nakpanduri Business Senior High School, which have reached the “gable stage,” the minister added.
At the Bunkpurugu Technical Senior High School, the projects are the construction of a two-storey 12 unit classroom block, which has reached “1st floor beams” level; a dining hall with kitchen block which has reached “roofing stage”; and a 2-bedroom semi-detached quarters B which has reached “finishing stage.”
“The above projects have stalled due to funding challenges… The projects will be reviewed as funds become available,” he added.
Not satisfied with the response, Dr Bandim pressed further, asking when funds would become available.
But the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, intervened, asking the minister, “Honorable minister, are you able to give timelines?”
To this the education minister responded in the negative, and walked away to his seat.
Some of the projects date back to 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2019, thereby causing apprehensions in the Bunpkurugu constituency.
“You know that is about 10 years old,” Dr Bandim argued, pressing the minister to the corner about why he has supervised the award of more projects when the old ones have not been completed.
But Dr. Abed Bandim stated that he has information to the effect that the GETFund had awarded projects in 2019 when the NPP was in power while projects have stalled from 2013 within the same constituency.
Dr Bandim observed that while some payments have been made in the case of the two-bedroom semi-detached quarters B at the Bunkpurugu Technical Senior High School, for example, which is at the finishing stage, the outstanding payment of GH¢32,682.01 would not be enough to complete the project.
“Project management discipline is one of the banes of development in this country.
The aforementioned two-bedroom semi-detached quarters B, having been awarded for construction in 2013, could have been completed within budget if project management guidelines had been adhered to,” he added.
“According to fxexchangerate.com, as of December 31, 2013, the US dollar was equivalent to GH¢2.36739. Thus in 2013, the outstanding amount of GH¢32,682.01 needed for the finishing stage of this staff quarters was equivalent to US$13,805.0807.
“Today, in December 2023, nearly seven years since Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia assumed office, at the exchange rate 11.9996 from the same website, shows that GH¢32682.01 is now US$2,723.5846. This implies that the GETFUND may need roughly five times more cash to complete the project; that is approximately US$2700 then versus US$13800 now! This simple back of the envelope analysis is a good perspective about why the education minister dodged the why question, refusing to return to the ring,” he said in an interview with GhanaWeb.
Source: ghanaweb.com
