Hon Clement Abas Apaak, Member of Parliament (MP) for the good people of Builsa South, has clearly stated that the Free Senior School Policy which was introduced by the Akufo Addo led government in 2017, has become an avenue for corruption, stealing, mismanagement, and inconsistencies.
The lawmaker made known that, while the funding for the Free SHS Policy has received the most resources from parliament to date, the various senior high schools in the country, have faced food shortages, a lack of infrastructure, and other additional expenses.
Dr. Clement Apaak, who doubles as a Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament to a greater extent revealed that, the cost of the policy, which is one of government’s flagship programmes has seen different quotations from the Finance Minister, Hon Kenneth Ofori Atta, the Education Minister, Hon Osei Adutwum and the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.
According to the politician, the Minister of Finance, Hon Kenneth Ofori Atta, stated in Section 284 (Page 49) of the 2021 mid-year budget statement that, a total of GH7.62 billion had been allocated to Free SHS since 2017. Similarly, in section 60 of the 2022 mid-year budget, he disclosed that the government spent GH5.3 billion from the start of the Free SHS programme in 2017 to the end of 2021.
Furthermore, during the ‘meet the press briefing’ at the Ministry of Information on Monday June 7, 2021, the Education Minister, Hon Yaw Osei Adutwum, presented a total amount of GH7.7 billion as expenditure to date (June 2021) on the Free SHS programme.
The Member of Parliament in his submission emphasized that, it was abnormal that the government could go from Ghc3.2 billion to over Ghc7.7 billion in just a year towards the implementation. He opined that the explanation from the Minister was not convincing and that the cost of free SHS has been an avenue where corruption abounds.
Hon. Apaak further added that the controversies and corruption surrounding the policy have proven that Ghanaians have the most deceitful government governing the country.
“This is the government nobody should trust. You trust the Akufo-Addo /Bawumia government at your own peril.
“This government engages in the most brazen lawlessness. This is parliament, the house of records, and I have produced documents to demonstrate the inconsistencies. What does this mean? It demonstrates that there is a lot to hide.”
Clement Apaak
The Member of Parliament stated that, one of the reasons why Ghanaians see what they are seeing in the implementation of the free policy is because “a lot of people have enriched themselves and the free SHS has become a conduit for grand scale corruption never witnessed in the history of this country.”
Ghana Can’t Continue With Unfettered Free SHS
It will be recalled that, Mr. Seth Terkper, a former Finance Minister, urged the Akufo-Addo government to rethink the model of the Free Senior High School policy and some capital-intensive projects in view of the current economic crisis.
Mr. Terkper suggested that; it will be prudent for the government to suspend some projects for a year to allow the economy to pick up before those projects are revived.
“I am going to use the Free SHS, unfettered free SHS, I am free to say it because in 2017 I tweeted and said unfettered free SHS was attractive but cannot be achieved. Ghana cannot do unfettered free SHS.”
Mr Terkper
Per the former minister’s account, “If we have a project which we have signed to complete in three years I think we can suspend it for one year until we improve the situation. For instance, some roads or some hospitals.”
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