Ghana: Press spotlights W/Bank’s assurance of investment in education sector, others

APA – Accra (Ghana)
The assurance by the World Bank that it will continue to invest in Ghana’s education sector because it is the key to the socio-economic development of the people is one of the trending stories in the Ghanaian press on Friday.
The Ghanaian Times reports that the World Bank has given the assurance that it will continue to invest in Ghana’s education sector because it is the key to the socio-economic development of the people.
The Managing Director of Operations of the World Bank, Anna Bjerde, said developing the human capital through education would help lift people out of poverty, improve living conditions and create jobs.
She said this when she visited the New Weija Gbawe Municipal Assembly Basic School 1 in the Greater Accra Region , as part of her four-day visit to Ghana to inspect the progress and impact of ongoing projects in the country.
The school is a beneficiary of the $210 million Ghana Accountability and Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) being funded by the World Bank between 2019 and 2026.
The project which is being implemented in 10,500 schools across the country is meant to improve the quality of education in low performing basic schools, particularly in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
Ms Bjerde, who is visiting Ghana for the first time since her appointment in April, also visited the Ghana Tech Hub and the Ghana Innovation Hub at the Accra Digital Centre, which are projects being funded by the World Bank.
The newspaper says that the frontage and some aspects of the Council of State Office building, near the Parliament House in Accra, are to be pulled down and rebuilt at an estimated cost of GH¢6 million.
This is because the building, completed in 2016 at the cost of GH¢4.6 million, is said to have been constructed out of plan and unfit for purpose due to challenges including insufficient space in the meeting room.
The Acting Executive Secretary to the Council, Stephen Blay, told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament in Accra on Wednesday that the communication system in the room deprived them of privacy during meetings, while the facility also lacked a sewage system and private places of convenience.
“In 2017 when the 7th council took office it was discovered that the building was put up out of plan. The edifice over there doesn’t have a single suitable meeting room. The council is a 31-member council but the meeting room in the building has a capacity for only 15 people.
“Apart from that, the sewage system was never done. Then the communication system, when you are at the top and you talk, when people are on the ground floor, they hear all the things that you are saying. So the council felt it wasn’t appropriate to occupy it at that time,” he said.
Mr Blay appeared before the committee to answer questions emanating from the 2021 Audi-tor-General report on Ministries, Departments and Agencies, which noted that the council building remained unoccupied.
He said in 2017 when the council realised that the building, constructed and supervised by the Public Works Department was not suitable it invited the Ghana Institute of Architects to inspect, resulting in the conclusion that the building needed to be remodelled.
Mr Blay said the model was planned for somewhere between 2018 and 2019, but the idea was shelved when the drop-that-chamber campaign was ongoing, and the atmosphere was not conducive to pull down part of the building.
He said in 2021 the council submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Finance asking for GH¢6 million for the remodeling of the building which was approved but it was not released.
The Ghanaian Times also reports that the management of 12 Ghana Education Service (GES) offices in six regions are to face prosecution over procurement breaches amounting to GH¢1,028,700.91.
They comprise district and mu¬nicipal offices in Tema, Ledzokuku, and Ga Central in Greater Accra; Abuakwa North in Eastern; Tumu in Upper West; Hohoe in Volta; Sefwi Juaboso, Aowin and Sefwi Akontobra in Western North, and Asikuma Odoben Brakwa, Twifo Praso and Hemang in the Central Region.
The Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, Dr James Klutse Avedzi, referred them to the Attorney General’s Office yesterday in Accra at the committee’s sitting.
The Committee is seeking answers to infractions in the Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana – Ministries, Departments and other Agencies for the year ended December 31, 2021.
The report said the 12 offices violated Section 20 of the Public Procurement (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Act 914) which requires procurement entities to request quotations from as many suppliers or contractors as practicable, but from at least three different sources.
These sources should not be related in terms of ownership, shareholding or directorship and the principles of conflict of interest shall apply between the procurement entities and their members and the different price quotation sources.
In line with the committee’s approach to non-competitive procurement, Dr Avedzi asked the management of the affected institutions to explain themselves to the Attorney-General’s office or the judge that would preside over their respective cases.
The Graphic says that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Dr George Akuffo Dampare, and members of the Police Management Board (POMAB) have assured an ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC) post-election follow-up team that the police would play its role to ensure free and fair elections.
ECONEC is the umbrella body of West African Election Management Bodies (EMBs).
The team, which is on a four-day post-election mission to Ghana, is led by the chairmen of the electoral management bodies of Nigeria and Niger, and also includes the ECONEC Permanent Secretary and a technical team from the Permanent Secretariat.
Since its arrival in Ghana on July 10, 2023, the team has been assessing the level of implementation of the recommendations made by the ECOWAS and AU Electoral Observation Missions (EOMs) which observed the December 2020 general election in Ghana.
It had earlier held working sessions with various stakeholders of the electoral process, including the Electoral Commission (EC), the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC), civil society organisations (CSOs), the Ghana Journalists’ Association and international partners.
Yesterday, the team met the leadership of the Ghana Police Service, which is a major stakeholder in the country’s electoral process.
After the meeting, the team toured the police headquarters as Dr Dampare briefed them on the operations of the Ghana Police Service and how the police were poised to serve the people.
The IGP informed the team about the measures put in place as far as election security was concerned to ensure a peaceful process in the upcoming 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections and other elections such as internal political party elections and elections in schools.
GIK/APA