Rev. John Ntim Fordjour and Dr. Clement Apaak
• Deputy Minister for Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour has responded to some allegations regarding the purchase of past exam questions
• He was reacting to suggestions made by Dr. Clement Apaak, MP for Builsa
• He also provided documents to back his claims
Deputy Education Minister, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour has responded to claims by Deputy Ranking Member on Education, Dr. Clement Apaak that he (the minister) peddled lies about figures of some purchased past questions.
Government spent GH₵ 68,513,455.75 to buy past questions for WASSCE students in 2 years from the same sole-source supplier.
Following this, Dr. Clement Apaak, who is also MP for Builsa South, emerged to raise questions about the subject.
He alleged that the amount spent by government to secure past exam questions in 2021 was 32% more than what was spent on the same in 2020.
Mr. Apaak asked why government will spend “GH¢68,513,455.75 to buy 1,035,733 exam questions through sole source from same company two years in a row and agree to pay for same exam questions at GH¢78 per unit, when it paid GH¢59 per unit only a year ago, at a whopping 32% increase.”
But responding to the claims, Deputy Education Minister, Ntim Fordjour indicated that the books were procured in 2019 at Gh₵71.25 (per unit cost) contrary to the Gh₵59.00 cost stated by Dr. Apaak.
He also maintained there has been a “reasonable” increase of 9.4% (due to factors such as inflation) which in turn has increased the cost of the book to GH₵78.00.
In a quick rebuttal, however, Mr. Apaak stated that a Clerk at the table office in Parliament provided figures that contradict the ones the deputy minister earlier provided.
According to him, “the Clerk has confirmed that there are no mistakes or typos with regard to the figures the Minister presented on the floor of Parliament as captured in his answers.
Comparing the figures in the official letter from the Minister for Education conveying his answers to the Clerk with what appeared in the answers he presented on the floor (in the order paper), no difference, same!”
He added: “So, indeed in 2020, government procured 568,755 past questions at a total cost of GH₵33,644,043.00 This works out to GH₵59 per unit, and in 2021 government bought 446,958 units of past questions at a unit cost of GH₵78. This works out to a total cost of GH₵34,862,412.00.
“In total government has spent GH₵68,513,455.75 in 2020/2021. The above figures are the figures conveyed by the Minister in a letter to the Clark of Parliament.”
Ntim Fordjour has however emerged with documents to prove that a total of 446,954 books were procured in 2021, at a unit price of GH₵78 which represents a 9.4% increase from the 2019 unit price which was GH₵71.25.
The document dated 20th August 2019 indicated that per the agreement signed between the Ministry of Education and the Messrs Kingdom Books and Stationary Company, a total of GH₵25,775,043.75 was paid for the supply of 361,755.00 papers in 2019 whilst an amount of GH₵34,862,412.00 was paid for 446,954.00 papers.
Below are the documents: