Napo, Adwoa Safo other public officers must refund scholarship monies – Vitus Azeem

Anti-graft campaigner, Vitus Azeem, says 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.

According to him, even though they could not be blamed for securing the scholarships, they should, out of good conscience, 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 told Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Monday.

It has emerged that some MPs and government officials were given scholarships from the GETfund scholarship secretariat to embark on courses abroad.

The mandate of the GETFund is to grant scholarships to brilliant but needy Ghanaians.

The list including some members of parliament and deputy ministers are contained in the audited report of the auditor general on the Getfund scholarship secretariat.

The Dome MP and procurement minister Adwoa Safo applied and obtained $12,800 in allowances with $17,004 in tuition fees to study at the Harvard Kennedy school.

The Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NaCCA), Prince Hamidu Armah also received £38,400 for living expense in addition to £33,000 for tuition fees, While Education minister Mathew Opoku Prempeh, who listed at number 38, is receiving $12,800 for living expenses and $11,200 as tuition fees at security course at Harvard University.

The Education Minister and the Executive Secretary of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment have explained they secured the scholarship before coming into public office.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) has stated the scholarships were not given under the tenure of the current administration.