The Scholarship Secretariat has been audited in the past as part of efforts to reduce the corruption in that institution but the problems still persist, the Executive Secretary of the Institute for Education Studies (IFEST-Ghana), Dr Peter Partey Anti, has said.
Therefore, he said, there should be a commission of inquiry set up by the President to have a second look into the operations of the Scholarship Secretariat.
“We have done the audit before but we are still where we are so I think there should be a commission of inquiry set up to delve into the activities of the scholarship secretariat and propose far-reaching reforms to enable us to rip the benefits of this important institution,” he said on the Ghana Tnght show on TV3 Monday, April 8.
His comments follow a recent publication by the Fourth Estate dubbed ‘Scholarship Bonanza’ alleging, among other things, that scholarships are being unfairly distributed to well-connected affluent individuals.
The Fourth Estate in its latest publication christened ‘Scholarship Bonanza’ has named persons close to key government officials as beneficiaries of scholarships that it deems inappropriate. But the Registrar maintains the secretariat did nothing wrong.
Dr Parte Ante stressed that “First and foremost we have to understand that we are pushing a lot of money into giving scholarships to students who technically are supposed to come back and support the growth of the economy and if that money is being misapplied then it means that we are just waiting the limited resources that we have, that is the reason that any government or anybody in the country will be interested in delving into this to find out what really is the situation.
“I understand the call from the Minority that the Special Prosecutor should step in and that there should be an audit and the registrar for the scholarship should step down, that could be a way to go around it but if we want far-reaching reforms that would look into what has happened over a period of time and also help us shape the scholarship secretariat, I think that the President should set up a commission of inquiry to delve into what really the challenges of the operations of the scholarship secretariat over the years. The commission will come out with far-reaching recommendations that will help shape the operations of this particular important institution.
“So I will go for a commission of inquiry that will lead to information from the scholarship secretariat then that will help serve the needs of the country.”