*On Free SHS expenditure 

*Questions difference in figures by gov’t

Story: Atta Kwaku BOADI

Minority Member of Parliament (MP) for  Builsa-South constituency  in the  Upper East Region, Dr Clement Apaak says he has  a good reason to doubt and to challenge the figure of GHC 7.62 billion , quoted by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, in response to  his question to him on the total cost of funding free Senior High School (FSHS) from 2017-202t1; restated and captured by him at page 49, paragraph 284, in the 2021 Mid-Year Review Budget. 

According to him,  the Finance Minister’s own answers to his  question on FSHS expenditure, content of the 2020 Mid-Year Review Bugdet he presented to Parliament, the 2021 Budget Statement to Parliament and the 2021 Mid-Year Review of the Budget, that the quoted GHC 7.62 billion  expenditure was hugely inflated by GHC 2.4 billion.

 He claimed  that per the documents  he had mentioned  above  it  showed , that from 2017 to 2021 it cost GHC 5.2 billion to fund fSHS, and not GHC 7.62 billion , as the figure he bandied about.

Speaking to Today in an interview at the weekend , the outspoken  NDC MP  said, “guess what, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, head of the Economic Management Team (EMT), in his recent lecture on the economy, has provided figures which also cast grave doubt on the cost of FSHS in the said five years. In fact Dr Bawumia’s figure is way below the GHC 7.62b the Minister of Finance reported on the floor of parliament and in the 2021 Mid-Year Review Budget”. 

It would be recalled  that on April 7, 2022, the Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, delivered a public lecture titled, “The State Of The Economy under the subheading, Fiscal Balance and Debt.” on page 30, Dr Bawumia presented data in Table 6 titled, “Expenditure On Flagship Projects.”

Dr  Apaak indicated  that  Dr Bawumia , showed through the data details of the expenditure on all flagship programmes over the five-year period between 2017 and 2021 in review, amounted to GHC 15.62b (page 29).
“The first item in Table 6 (page 30) under, Flagship Projects, is Free SHS. The corresponding Expenditure (Releases) 2017-2021, shows GHC 5.3b”,he said.

Dr Apaak  went on to say that  under the subheading, “The Suffering Of Ghanaians,” Dr. Bawumia noted  the following under item 25 on page 116, “we  have  implemented the free senior high school initiative, providing free  tuition, uniforms, textbooks and food to students and saving parents of over 1.2 million children  significant amounts per child for each year of senior high school”.
Dr Bawumia, he said ,  then proceeded to confirm his earlier data on “FSHS expenditure as GHC 5.3b in five years under, “A Summary of Payments (Releases) Made to Cushion Ghanaians in the last 5 years include: fSHS – Ghc 5.3b.”

The GHC 5.3b figure quoted by Dr. Bawumia, the Builsa South MP said,  was  radically less than what Ken Ofori-Atta presented to Parliament in response to a question on funding FSHS from 2017-2021, I asked in 2021.

“The difference, is a whopping GHC 2.3b. Mr Ofori-Atta, also a member of the Economic Management Team (EMT), told Parliament government had expended GHC 7.62b. I challenged, and continue to doubt his figure of GHC 7.62b because in the 2020 Mid-Year Review Budget, he reported GHC 3.2b. And if the allocation of GHC 1.9b (1,974,021,968) for 2021 was added, the total will amount to GHC 5.2b (5,174,021,968), at most, not GHC 7.62b.”, he opined. 

He  added: “When I pressed further for an explanation as to why fSHS expenditure shot up by GHC 2.4b in just one year (2020-2021), he claimed the leap could be due to unplanned expenditure related to the procurement of PPEs to keep teachers and students safe in the wake of COVID-19. Ken Ofori-Atta repeated the cost of funding Free SHS programme as GHC 7.62b in the 2021 Mid-Year Review Budget as presented to Parliament”.

Ken Ofori-Atta’s feeble effort to blame this unexplained additional expenses on PPEs and preparing schools for reopening, Dr Apaak said was s exposed by his own documents.

In the same 2021 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review on page 101, Appendix 4E, Dr Apaak who is also  Deputy Ranking Member on Education  Committee of Parliament  stated that GHC598 million was allocated and released as COVID-19 expenditure to prepare schools for mass reopening.

He recounted that , the Committee on Health was informed that the Ministry of Health also spent another GHC96 million on PPEs for the Ministry of Education when the Ministry of Health attended upon the Committee on Health to defend its budget request for 2022.

For emphasis and to make clear the contradictory cost assigned to the cost of the FSHS in five years, by the Vice President and the Minister for Finance, he  said it was  worth restating that the cost assigned to FSHS in five years as presented by Dr. Bawumia at his lecture, was GHC 5.3b – a whooping GHC 2.3b less than what the Finance Minister told Members of Parliament(MPs) on the floor of Parliament of the Republic and Ghanaians.

Dr Apaak  further provided analysis, which however put the figure at GHC 2.4b, less what the Minister for Finance presented.  

According to him, in the 2020 Mid-Year Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy (July 23, 2020) on page 2, paragraph 9, government reported a total of GHC 3.2b (3,200,000,000) was spent on fSHS, since its inception (2017-2020).

 On page 241 of the 2021 Budget Statement and Economic Policy (March 12, 2021) government allocated GHC 1.9b (1,974,021,968) to the fSHS programme, which was listed as item 4 in Appendix 6.

He said  based on items 1 and 2 above, the total expenses on FSHS by the end of 2021 should be GHC 5 2b (5,174,021,968b from 2017-2021).

 However in the 2021 Mid-Year Fiscal Policy Review of the Budget Statement and Economic Policy (July 29, 2021) on page 49, paragraph 284,he said it was captured, that since the inception of the FSHS, government has invested GHC 7.62b (7,620,000,000) to implement the FSHS programme. 

 Based on items 4 and 5 above,he said, government expended an additional GHC 2.4b (2,445,978,032) on the fSHS programme, which was not budgeted for in the 2021 budget.

“So far, all efforts to get government to account for this extra GHC 2.4b, has failed. This has been long after the Minister of Finance failed to tell Parliament exactly what accounted for the additional expense on the fateful Wednesday July 21, 2021 (Official report columns 044 to 045)”,he said. 

“Ghanaians have a right to know the actual and true expenditure of FSHS; and/or cost associated with FSHS for the last five years. The fact, that two top government officials – both key members of the EMT and constant cabinet meeting attendees – provided two conflicting expenditure associated with FSHS, justifies a probe. 

Ghanaians ought to demand that the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government accounts for a discovered additional expenditure on the back of FSHS. This call is justified by the GHC 5.3b figure announced by Dr. Bawumia as the cost of FSHS in five years. Clearly, a big difference of GHC 2.3b exists between GHC 5.3b (Bawumia) and GHC 7.62b (Ofori-Atta),”he added.