Policy think tank, African Education Watch (Eduwatch), is asking IT firm TANIT Limited to refund a whopping GHS859,000 to the Ministry of Education (MoE).
According to Eduwatch, failure on the part of TANIT to refund the money to the Education sector will see them take legal action against the IT firm.
The Ministry of Education, in July 2021, signed a GHS5.7 million contract with the IT service provider to design, develop and deploy a digital teacher training content and platform under the GALOP Project by November 2021.
However, the IT service provider failed to deliver on time. This led to the expiration of the contract compelling the Ministry to train the 40,000 teachers on another existing platform available to the Ministry of Education without any additional cost.
Following this, the Education Ministry has since written to TANIT for a refund of the initial payment of GHS859,000 but the IT service provider is rather insisting on the payment of the remaining GHS4.9 million as executed in the contract, regardless of the delay.
But Eduwatch adding its voice to the call has given TANIT a 30-day ultimatum to refund the amount or risk being dragged before the Office of the Special Prosecutor.
According to the think tank, the contract with the IT firm 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.
“Per our information, TANIT LTD was contracted through a single source procurement activity which is regrettably a norm at the Ministry of Education. While the firm is virtually unknown among leading IT Solutions companies in Ghana. one wonders about the justification for its single-source procurement by the Ministry of Education,” Eduwatch said in a statement.
In view of Eduwatch, the failure of TANIT LTD to deliver is enough indication that the company lacked the capacity to deploy within the five months contracted period.
To that effect, Eduwatch says it is strongly backing the Ministry of Education to recover all payments made to TANIT LTD in view of their non-performance.
They further urge the Ministry to “sue for a refund of the said GHC 859,000 paid to TANIT LTD and other consequential losses incurred because of the failure of TANIT LTD to deliver on their contractual obligations.
“In lieu of any refund by TANIT LTD or suit by the Ministry of Education within the next 30 days, we [Eduwatch] shall instruct our lawyers to file an official complaint of financial loss at the Office of the Special Prosecutor,” Eduwatch threatened.
BELOW IS THE FULL STATEMENT
