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Refund scholarship monies - Vitus Azeem to Ministers cited as GETfund beneficiaries

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Former Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative has charged Minister of Procurement, Adwoa Safo and the Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh and other government officials to refund the sponsorship fees used for scholarships by the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).

He said public officials who used their positions to obtain GETfund scholarships in the past should be made to pay back the sponsorship fees to the state.

His comments come at the back of a performance audit report on the administration of scholarships by GETFund from 2012 to 2018 which revealed that top appointees of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) received scholarships to study abroad.

The beneficiaries are Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Sarah Adwoa Safo, and Ignatius Baffour Awuah, among others.
Some government appointees, Members of Parliament, lecturers, heads of institutions and some media practitioners benefited from the scheme meant for needy-but-brilliant students.

Dr. Opoku Prempeh is listed as a Harvard University student-sponsored for the programme National and International Security, receiving US$11,200 and US$12,800 as tuition and living allowance respectively.

The Procurement Minister is also listed as a Harvard Kennedy School student who received US$17,004 as tuition fees and US$12,800 as a living allowance.
Baffour Awuah is listed by the report as a student of the University of Portsmouth, UK, studying BA International Relations and Politics, and enjoying £11,800 as tuition fees and £12,710 as a living allowance.

The audit report concluded that the failings of the GETFund led to brilliant-but-needy students being deprived of scholarship in favour of politicians.

"GETFund did not establish any systems, policies, and procedures to ensure the economic, efficient and effective use of public funds," the report stated.

However, the anti-graft campaigner, Vitus Azeem, in an interview on Accra-based Starr FM said the government appointees out of good conscience must payback since they were not needy students as stipulated by the Act of the scholarship scheme.
"These are very unfortunate for a country that goes out there in search of loans. We need a more serious in-depth investigation into this matter.

"The people who gave out these scholarships should be punished or made to face the law, and those public officials who received it, even though they cannot be blamed, they should pay back the monies to the state," he said.
Meanwhile, GETFund has denied media reports that it awarded scholarships to the Ministers.
In a statement released by GETFund, it said even though the scheme is not for only brilliant but needy students, they haven't awarded any scholarship to a Minister.

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