Free SHS Review: Tell us the figures you presented to IMF - Apaak to Ofori-Atta

Dr. Clement Apaak, Deputy Ranking Member of Parliament’s Education Committee, has asked Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta to begin the review of the free senior high school policy by informing Ghanaians of the cost reported to the International Monetary Fund.

The call comes after the Minister hinted that the policy would be reviewed by the government.

The Minister has stated that the policy, as well as some other social intervention policies, will be reviewed by the government.

He stated that the purpose of these reviews is to ensure that the policies are carried out effectively.

He went on to say that the review had already begun.

In response to these remarks, the MP for Builsa South suggested that the Minister first reveal the actual cost of implementation from 2017 to 2021.

He said “Start the review by telling us what figure you (KOA) reported to the IMF as cost of implementing FSHS from 2017-2021. Is it the 7.62B you reported in the 2021 Mid-Year budget or the 5.3B he reported in the 2022 Mid-Year budget or both?”

The MP had previously expressed concerns about why the Minister should have been fired.

He had argued that the Minister had been deliberately dishonest and disrespectful to Parliament, and that sanctions were justified.

He provided the figures Mr. Ofori-Atta presented to Parliament in 2021 and 2022 as the total cost of funding Free SHS over a five-year period, from 2017 to 2021.

The MP previously stated that the difference between the cost in five years, reported as GH7.62 billion in the 2021 Mid-Year Review Budget, and the cost for the same period, reported as GH5.3 billion in the 2022 Mid-Year Review Budget is GH2.32 billion. This has been and continues to be a problem.

In providing further details, the MP said “On Wednesday July 21, 2021, Ken Ofori-Atta, in response to a question as to whether government had taken a loan to fund the implementation of the Free SHS policy I asked, said the following in answer: “Mr Speaker, government has taken no loan to specifically finance the Free SHS policy. The Free SHS has since its inception been financed from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and from the Government of Ghana (GoG) funding sources. Over the five years, a total amount of GH¢7.62 billion has been allocated to implement the Free SHS programme. Out of this amount, GH¢4.18 billion was sourced from GoG, representing 54.76 percent, while the balance of GH¢ 3.44 billion representing 45.24 percent, came from ABFA.” This answer is captured in the Parliamentary Debates, Official Report, on Wednesday 21st July 2021, Fourth Series Vol.113 No.32, column 040-041.

A few days later, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana, to Parliament on Thursday, 29th July, 2021. He repeated what he said in response to my Parliamentary question. In paragraph 284 on pages 49-50, he said: “Mr. Speaker, the Free SHS School Policy has since its inception been financed from the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) and Government of Ghana (GoG) funding sources. Over the five years, a total amount of GH¢7.62 billion has been allocated to implement the Free SHS Programme. Out of this amount, GH¢4.18 billion was sourced from GoG, representing 54.76 percent, while the balance of GH¢3.44 billion, representing 45.24 percent, came from ABFA.”

Given, that he repeated the response to my question in the Mid-Year Review Budget of 2021; that “GH¢7.62 billion had been spent to implement the Free SHS programme,” and a further breakdown of “GH¢4.18 billion (54.76%) from GOG sources and GH¢3.44 billion (45.24%) from ABFA,” it came as a shock that he strangely reported GH¢5.3 billion as the total investment made to implement the same Free SHS for the same period, from 2017-2021, in the 2022 Mid-Year Review Budget.

For the avoidance of doubt, Ken Ofori-Atta presented the Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the 2022 Budget Statement and Economic Policy of the Government of Ghana to Parliament on Monday, 25th July, 2022. In paragraph 466 on page 90 of the official statement, Ken Ofori-Atta is quoted as follows: “Mr. Speaker, we have invested in the future of our children through the Free SHS where GH¢5.3 billion has been spent to enable 1,261,495 student have access to secondary education.”

The suddenly less and unexplained cost of funding the Free SHS policy was also verbally stated by Ken Ofori-Atta, during his 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review Speech on Monday, 25th July, 2022. The video recording of his speech captures him vocalise the following, under Free SHS Programme. In paragraph 60 on page 17, Ken Ofori-Atta said: “Mr. Speaker, we have placed human capital development at the core of our national transformation efforts since 2017. We have invested GH¢5.3 billion to enable 1,261,495 Ghanaian children access secondary education under the Free SHS programme at the end of 2021 to improve access to education.”

This unexplained reporting of a far less cost of implementing the Free SHS programme in five years as captured in official Parliamentary records, and documents made available by Ken Ofori-Atta himself to Parliament, offends Parliament in every way, shape and form. How can the Minister report GH¢7.62 billion as the total cost of Free SHS in five years, provide a breakdown in nominal (GH¢4.18 billion GOG and GH¢3.44 billion ABFA) and in percentage terms (54.76% GOG and 45.24% ABFA) in reply to my question, repeat same in the 2021 Mid-Year Review Budget, suddenly, without explanation, report a generic GH¢5.3 billion as the cost incurred in implementing the same Free SHS programme in five years in the 2022 Mid-Year Review Budget Statement and as contained in his 2022 Mid-Year Budget Review speech?

Reporting vastly different figures of GH¢7.62 billion and GH¢5.3 billion as cost of the same programme, Free SHS, for the same period, 2017-2021, a difference of GH¢2.32 billion to Parliament, is questionable. If the earlier figures reported in 2021 were in error, the proper thing to do was to withdraw the GH¢7.62 billion reported, explain what occasioned the error, apologise and seek leave of Parliament to amend to the correct figure, since records of the house already captured GH¢7.62 billion a year earlier as cost of Free SHS in five years. This was not, and still has not been done. So, as it stands, Parliamentary records have both GH¢7.62 billion and GH¢5.3 billion as the cost of Free SHS from 2017 to 2021. This can not be allowed to go unchallenged.”