Parliament to Investigate Ghc68.5 Million Spent on Photocopying ‘Pasco’ – Ablakwa

Okudzeto Ablakwa, the North Tongu Member of Parliament (MP), has stated that the Minority in Parliament will seek an investigation into the expense of photocopying past questions for senior high school students.

This comes after the Education Minister told Parliament that GHC 68.5 million was spent to photocopy past questions for SHS pupils.

“To help prepare the final year senior high school students for the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the Ministry has procured 446,954 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) questions from Messrs Kingdom Books and Stationery at a unit price of GHS78.00.

“In 2020, the government through its efforts to help students amidst COVID-19 to prepare for the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination procured 568,755 past questions for students to try their hands on before sitting for the actual exams,” he said.

However, in an interview with Accra-based Joy News, Okudzeto Ablakwa stated that it is unacceptable in today’s digital environment for the government to spend this much money printing prior questions.

He intimated that the Minority would request an inquiry in the coming days since such theft cannot be tolerated in this country.

“Have you seen the unit cost? Parliament is going to institute a probe. We have passed a resolution, and we are going to probe that. It is so scandalous at a time when you’re talking about digitalization. Under Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, who didn’t make a lot of noise about digitalization, you could access past questions online. It was online, and it came at no cost. You just instruct WAEC, and they put it there. Then there is another Math Set scandal, which Parliament has been tracking. The Mathematical sets they ordered have not arrived.”