GETFund receives allocation for two months in 2013
The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) will not send any student outside the country to study unless the fund is adequately resourced to cater for the needs of students it sends outside.
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This is to prevent the recurring situation of students on GETFund scholarships outside the country getting distressed because of the government’s failure to pay both their tuition fees and other allowances.
The decision follows delays in the payment of GETFund allocations.
Arrears
In 2013, the budgeted allocation stands at GH¢691,457,200 but to date the fund has received releases for only January and February, totalling GH¢88,723,193.
In that regard, the Public Relations Manager of the GETFund, Mr Stephen Baffoe, told the Daily Graphic that the fund had been compelled to re-strategise to ensure that students on scholarships did not suffer.
“For scholarships we took a cue from trends and so we did not do much for the current academic year. We have budgeted adequately to deal with that, subject to the availability of funds,” he said.
“We have decided that in the 2013/2014 academic year we’ll not send out students unless we have money for their living allowances and fees. This year we have not had a large numbers of applications and so we’ve set aside money for those already in the system,” Mr Baffoe said.
He, however, said for those already in the system and those going to the United Kingdom, the fund had set aside money to cater for at least their three months’ living allowance.
Although the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning had, in a letter dated November 4, 2013, instructed the Controller and Accountant-General to pay the fund GH¢240,294,897.69 which, when added to the GHC88,723,193 released will amount to GH¢362,439,109.31, less than the total budget allocation for the fund in 2013, the money is yet to be credited to the GETFund account.
While in 2012 the budgeted allocation stood at GH¢545,440,000, the fund received GH¢505,549,121.
With the fund operating with a shallow pocket, several projects at the pre-tertiary level especially are now in limbo. The contractors have abandoned the various project sites, while awaiting payment for work done.
Some of the abandoned sites include the Potroase Presby Primary and Bomponso M/A Primary, both in the East Akim municipality in the Eastern Region; the Yeji Senior High Technical School (two-storey girls’ dormitory block) in the Pru District in the Brong Ahafo Region; the Guakro Effah SHS (12-unit two-storey classroom block) at Offoman in theTechiman North District in the Brong Ahafo Region; the Navrongo SHS (rehabilitation of staff bungalow) and the Zorkor SHS (construction of an 18-unit, three-storey classroom block), both in the Upper East Region.
“From field reports, a number of contractors have demobilised from project sites because payment for work done has delayed. The larger impact is that majority of the contractors are local and small-scale and so delays in payment negatively impact their business sustainability,” Mr Baffoe said.
“We have to spend time dealing with frustrated contractors, assuring and giving them hope that we certainly will pay them,” he added.
GETFund purpose
The GETFund is a statutory fund established in 2000 to, among other objectives, provide financial support for agencies and institutions under the Ministry of Education for the development and maintenance of essential academic facilities and infrastructure in public educational institutions, particularly in tertiary institutions.
It is also to provide supplementary funding to the Scholarship Secretariat for the grant of scholarships for gifted but needy students for studies in second-cycle and accredited tertiary institutions in Ghana.
Over the last 13 years, much has been achieved, especially in the areas of infrastructure development on the various campuses across the country, from tertiary down to second-cycle institutions.
An annual increment in GETFund allocations and the fund’s achievements notwithstanding, it is bedevilled with funding challenges mainly as a result of the government’s inability to fulfill its financial obligations.
Finance for the fund comes from sources, including the Valued Added Tax (VAT), money allocated by Parliament for the fund and money that accrues to the fund from investment made by its board of trustees.
The struggle with finances means that apart from the abandoned infrastructure projects, students living on the coffers of the fund face hardship outside the country.
Complaints by United Kingdom authorities and hostel owners unleashing debt collectors on students in debt to retrieve unpaid fees were widely reported.
Some of the scholarship beneficiaries had to resort to sending distress calls to their parents, relatives and the media in Ghana complaining about the hardship they had to endure, since the government had failed to pay both their tuition fees and other allowances.
That is not all. Others in some other areas have also sent SOS messages to Ghana, complaining about untold hardships they were going through, as well as threats of termination of courses by their schools.
There are currently about 200 postgraduate students undertaking various courses in the United States of America (USA) and Europe through GETFund scholarships.
The courses include Law and Accounting in Oil and Gas, Management, Sciences and Cancer Pharmacology.
Writer’s email: [email protected]