Education Minister Refutes Minority NDC $1.2M Training Program Allegations
The Minister of Education, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum has shot down allegations of bribery and corruption in the $1.2million training programme for public school teachers sponsored by the World Bank.
According to the Bosomtwe lawmaker, the money has not been squandered as claimed as there are no underhand dealings in the training program.
He clarified that the said amount in contention was not even meant for the training of teachers as suggested, saying that his outfit pre-financed the training of 41,000 teachers after which the World Bank released the money.
Dr. Adutwum denied squandering the funds, indicating that the money is still sitting in the Ministry’s account.
The Minority in Parliament accused him of running away from accountability relating to the $1.2million training programme.
The Minority said reports available to them indicate that coupled with further correspondences between the World Bank and the Ghana Education Service, the Ministry of Education is claiming to have trained some 40,000 teachers on the digital literacy platform under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) costing a total of $1.2 million.
“Under the initiative, the Government is expected to invest some two hundred and nineteen million dollars ($219 million) on a comprehensive set of interventions that address constraints from teaching to learning in our schools.
“It is, however, imperative to note that the World Bank in its attempt to determine the veracity of the claims made by the Ministry of Education wrote officially to the Ghana Education Service. But in its response, the Ghana Education Service (GES) appears unaware of any of such training.
“It is further emerging, that the Ministry of Education, under Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, on the other hand, has failed to respond to a series of queries the World Bank has issued, the latest of which was said to have been sent to the Ministry in January this year.
“As the Minority in Parliament, we find this loud silence and blatant attempt by the Minister to shy away from probity as worrying and scandalous,” a statement issued by Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, Ranking Member of the Education Committee, on Thursday, May 26 said.
However, the Minister responding to the allegations at a press briefing in Accra, Thursday, May 26, 2022, said “The good news is that the money is sitting in the [Ministry’s] account as we speak”,
The Minister insists the facts of the matter have wrongly been interpreted.
“The money was not meant for any training. The training was to be supported by us and once we can show that we have a skin in the game that we are committed to the transformation of education under GALOP, then they will release the money and that is what they have done. There is nothing wrong here because the World Bank has approved our funding”, he indicated.
Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum was particularly worried about attempts to tarnish his reputation despite his commitment to assist the government to give Ghana’s education sector a facelift.
He however assured that these allegations will not deter him from undertaking policies that will be in the best interest of the country.
“So nothing can be far away from the truth that, I will superintend over a project that is not going to benefit Ghanaians, it will never be true, I will never do that.”
“I didn’t come to this country to do that, I came to help and ensure that the President’s mission for the transformation of Education in the country is accomplished. You work so hard and others who don’t care will do anything to dent your image”, he said.