–Education Minister urged to champion competitive procurement
The Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has indicated that the Ministry of Education (MoE) did not consider any value for money nor spending efficiency analysis in the GH₵5.7m contract awarded to TANIT Ltd. to develop a training platform and content to train teachers.
According to the civil society organisation (CSO), it is still surprising how the Education Ministry decided to award such a huge contract through a single-source procurement process although that ministry is well known for single-sourced procurement.
Even more surprising is the fact that TANIT has no proven record of capacity to deliver nor is it a firm known among leading IT Solutions companies in the country.
“The TANIT contract was unnecessary, and only fed into a string of procurement activities under the ‘COVID-19 Resilience Programme’ of the Ministry of Education, with no value for money and spending efficiency, especially when the ministry claims it eventually leveraged on existing platforms to train the 40,000 teachers for whom this envisioned TANIT platform was meant.
“TANIT was contracted through a single source procurement activity which is regrettably a norm at the Ministry of Education,” Eduwatch stated.
Expressing displeasure in the arrangement, Eduwatch is urging the ministry to recoup every dime paid to the company as it couldn’t deliver the contract on time while appealing to the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, to prioritise spending efficiency, value for money, and make competitive procurement the norm for all major procurement activities at the Education Ministry, as well as its agencies.
“One wonders about the justification for its single-source procurement by the Ministry of Education. The failure of TANIT to deliver is enough indication that the company could not deploy within the five months contracted period. A competitive procurement approach would have provided better options,” it stated.
The Chief Executive of Eduwatch, Kofi Asare, lamented that the education sector has very severe funding constraints, the reason for the existence of over 5,000 schools taking place under trees and sheds, and 4,000 primary schools lacking a JHS. This has led to high dropout rates, especially in rural areas, and 40 percent of basic school pupils lack desks.
Therefore, he is calling on the Education Minister to employ competitive procurement measures that will ensure value for money in all future supplies and purchases for the education sector.
Background
In July 2021, the Ministry of Education signed a contract worth GH₵5.7m with TANIT LTD., an IT service provider to design, develop and deploy digital teacher training content and platform under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) by November 2021. The service was required to meet a target of training 40,000 teachers by the end of November 2021.
According to the MoE, TANIT failed to deliver according to schedule, leading to the expiration of the contract, compelling the MoE to train the 40,000 teachers on another existing platform available to the MoE without any additional cost.
The ministry has since written to TANIT for a refund of the initial payment of GH₵859,000 for which the company is rather insisting on the payment of the remaining GH₵4.9b based on its claim that the contract was completed regardless of the delay.
