GETFund warns against corruption

Cape Coast, Jan 31, GNA - Dr (Mrs) Sylvia Boye, the Chairperson of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), on Monday warned authorities of the country's tertiary institutions that the fund would be unwilling to provide funds for contracts that are over-priced.

GETFund would also withhold payment for any projects executed unsatisfactorily and withdraw support for institutions whose students vandalise properties.

Dr (Mrs) Boye issued the warning when she handed over a 62-seater bus, an ambulance, a Toyota saloon car and a water tanker all valued at 2.2 billion cedis to the University of Cape Coast (UCC). She said this year the fund expects a total of 900 billion cedis from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning for projects in the education sector.

So far the fund has paid a total of 40 billion cedis to the UCC and for the past three years it has allocated 60 per cent of its infrastructure funds to the universities, polytechnics and other tertiary institutions.

This, she said, was as a result of the fund's determination to assist the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports towards the realisation of the government's policy of making tertiary education accessible to all Ghanaians.

Dr Boye said some of the projects include provision of ICT centres, computer laboratories and examination halls, in addition to the provision of vehicles and equipment, and urged students in the tertiary sector to take advantage of the various facilities being provided to improve their academic standards.

Rev Prof Emmanuel Adow Obeng, the Vice-Chancellor of the UCC who received the keys to the vehicles, expressed gratitude to the GETFund for its assistance to the UCC.