Ministry chases IT Company for GH¢859,115.46 refund

Dr Osei Yaw Adutwum

Education Ministry has started moves to recover an amount of GH¢859,115.46 from TANIT Ltd, an IT company it contracted to provide digital teacher training content and platform in 2021.

In a letter dated June 22, 2022, the ministry requested the IT company to refund all payments made to them after it failed to meet the tenets of the contract signed between the two parties on July 26, 2021.

In another letter dated July 18, 2022, the ministry reminded the company to refund all payments as they did not perform their obligation under the contract agreement, which was supposed to be completed within five months. The intervention money was available up till November, 2021.

According to the ministry, it received a letter from TANIT Ltd dated February 14, 2022 requesting the remaining payment of 85 per cent of the contract sum amounting to GH¢4,940,827.72 as per the deliverable schedule in the contract.

Terms of Contract

The Education Ministry on the other hand was expecting TANIT Ltd to have performed each of the five deliverables and submit a claim respectively for work done at each stage as spelt out in the contract and report for verification before moving to the next stage.

Here are the five deliverables spelt out in the contract by the Ministry to TANIT Ltd:

1. Submission of inception report by August 2021, attracting payment of 15 per cent of the contract sum which was met by TANIT Ltd.
2. Design, construct and build a platform for the training of teachers online by September 2021, attracting payment of 25 per cent.
3. Develop and build curriculum design by October 2021, also attracting 20 per cent payment.
4. Operationalise a dashboard, platform sign off and go live by November 2021, which also attracted payment of 20 per cent.
5. Consultant to be required to stay on board for additional two months (December 2021 to January 2022) after the project goes live for quality assurance, which attracted the remaining 20 per cent.

The bone of contention is the fact that TANIT Ltd did not submit monthly reports for the remaining four deliverables, but rather lumped the four reports together and requested the payment of the remaining 85 per cent contract sum.

In addition, TANIT Ltd also failed to complete the project within the five-month period as prescribed by the contract.

Background

It must be noted that TANIT Ltd submitted a lumped payment claim of the remaining 85 per cent on February 14, 2022, meanwhile, the contract which was signed on July 26, 2021 was supposed to be completed by January 2022.

TANIT Ltd’s contract was not terminated as is being speculated, but it rather expired, forcing the Education Ministry to seek support from another source for the successful execution of the project.

The Education Ministry therefore assured the general public of its commitment to making good use of resources it received from the government for the provision of quality education to all Ghanaians irrespective of location.

The ministry stated that, it did not cook up figures but gave actual training figures to merit the payment of the project fund from the World Bank.

---DGN online