GETFund projects must be completed on schedule

The Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), a public trust fund set up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 to provide funding to supplement the government’s efforts to provide education infrastructure from pre-tertiary to the tertiary level, has over the years largely lived up to its mandate.

Since its inception, GETFund has funded the delivery of quality education in the country from the basic to the tertiary level, through the fund’s accruals from 2.5 per cent VAT imposed on selected goods and services specifically to fix the funding gap in education.

Through the GETFund, public institutions at all levels have benefited from the provision of academic infrastructure, supply of textbooks, furniture and generally, the provision of essential resources for all levels of education, including scholarships, to all segments of the Ghanaian population.

Even though the establishment of the fund met resistance from a section of the public and institutions, today there is no question about the usefulness of the fund. Indeed, the absence of the fund would have strained our educational sector.

The GETFund has played a crucial role in addressing the issue of congestion at all levels of education and has additionally financed the education of needy and deprived students to enable them to obtain tertiary education.

Every year, Parliament approves an amount to the institution for the execution of projects under its mandate. Since its inception, the fund has provided funding for the construction and rehabilitation of administration and library blocks, assembly halls, auditoriums, classroom blocks, dining halls, dormitories, hostels, kindergarten blocks, lecture halls, model schools, sanitary facilities, staff accommodation, among many others.

For the 2024 fiscal year for instance, Parliament has approved a total of GH¢3.94 billion to finance various educational projects and programmes across the sub-sectors of education.

Under the distribution formula, 67 per cent of the total approved fund, representing GH¢2.645 billion, has been earmarked for the completion of stalled projects and the settlement of arrears owed contractors.

According to the formula, the remaining GH¢1.29 billion of the approved amount would focus on scholarships, furniture supplies, budgetary support for all the agencies under the Ministry of Education, operational purposes, among others. 

The Daily Graphic is happy that the GETFund has pledged its determination to complete all its sponsored 3,606 stalled projects at all the educational levels across the country.

For us, it is good news that the GETFund has asked all awarding institutions to reactivate the construction phase of all stalled projects under their respective areas of jurisdiction.

We see the directive by the fund as welcome news and will like to urge all those awarding agencies and institutions to act immediately to ensure that the projects are completed on schedule.

Unfortunately, the GETFund neither awards contracts nor supervises their execution. The fund relies on the advice of the agencies to disburse the money.

That is why the Daily Graphic further urges the awarding agencies to insist on quality work that will ensure that the structures stand the test of time.

Over the years, most of the projects have been abandoned along the line, resulting in the ballooning of the contract sums when such contracts have to be re-awarded to new contractors.

Even in some cases, some of the projects that have been completed start deteriorating even before they are handed over for use, thus requiring another fund to be released in order to put them back in shape.

In situations like that, such agencies and contractors should be held responsible and be made to ensure that the work is done again to meet specifications.

There have been allegations of some agencies which are supposed to ensure that the projects are properly executed rather conniving with the contractors to either delay the execution or abandon the projects altogether for revaluation to enable them to get more money.  

All awarding institutions must show good faith and whip the contractors under their jurisdiction into line in order to ensure that the work is done as expected.

All said and done, the Daily Graphic believes that the fund is available for disbursing so that work at the various projects site will take off immediately.

For us as a media house, for the good of all, we shall monitor closely the execution of the projects throughout the country to ensure that the huge money voted for the improvement of our educational sector is judiciously utilised.