¢20m GETFUND Cash For MPs

MPs are expected to share a ¢20.6m cedis allocation for the monitoring of Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND) projects and responding to educational emergencies.

Each MP is expected to receive averagely ¢72,000, a document available to parliament has revealed.

The figure is 2.3% of ¢924.8million expected to accrue to GETFUND for the 2018 fiscal year.

Questions have been raised about the propriety of the allocations because GETFUND also has its own monitoring department.

The 216 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies also have monitoring units.

Photo: A GETFUND project
But Member of Parliament for Ho Central in the Volta region, Benjamin Kpodo has explained not all the money comes directly to the MPs.

He said a chunk goes to the Assemblies for emergencies. If a rainstorm rips a school, a request is brought to an MP who directs the local assembly to release funds to solve the problem, the MP explained.

In the end, an MP gets between ¢12,000 to ¢15,000 cedis for monitoring GETFUND projects, he maintained.

He said he has been able to draw the attention of GETFUND to abandoned projects which were later re-awarded on contract.

The salvaging of the project was because of the allocations he received to monitor GETFUND projects.

But Country Director of civil society organisation, SEND-Ghana, George Osei Bimpeh has criticised the allocation to MPs as a duplication of functions.

He said it is not reasonable for GETFUND to fund MPs to check projects in their own constituencies whilst district assemblies could easily do this.

The money should be channelled into more productive areas such as infrastructure which is in urgent demand, he noted.