Policy think tank African Education Watch (Eduwatch) wants the Ministry of Education (MoE) to recover an amount of GHS859,000 paid to IT firm TANIT Ltd.

Eduwatch has given the ministry a 30-day ultimatum to recover the amount or face being dragged before the Special Prosecutor.

In a statement, Eduwatch said: “We are aware that the Ministry has since written to TANIT LTD for a refund of the initial payment of GHS 859,000 for which TANIT LTD is rather insisting on the payment of the remaining GHS4.9 million based on its claim that the contract was completed regardless of the delay.”

According to the think tank, the contract with the IT firm was unnecessary, “and only fed into a string of procurement activities under the COVID-19 Resilience Programme of the Ministry of Education with no value for money and spending efficiency, especially when the Ministry claims it eventually leveraged on existing platforms to train the 40,000 teachers for whom this envisioned TANIT platform was meant.”

It added: “In lieu of any refund by TANIT LTD or suit by the Ministry of Education within the next 30 days, we [Eduwatch] shall instruct our lawyers to file an official complaint of financial loss at the Office of the Special Prosecutor.”

The Ministry of Education, in July 2021, signed a GHS 5.7 million contract with the IT service provider to design, develop and deploy a digital teacher training content and platform under the GALOP Project by November 2021. 

However, the IT service provider failed to deliver on time.

This led to the expiration of the contract.

The Ministry of Education, also had to train teachers on a different platform.

While the Ministry has written to the IT service provider for a refund, the company rather insists that the Education Ministry pay up the rest of the money as it executed the contract, regardless of the delay.