Gov’t spends Gh₵68m to buy past questions in 2yrs – Dr Apaak

Based on two questions posed I posed to the Minister for Education on July 14, 2021:

1) To ask the Minister for Education if Government will procure and distribute past exam questions to final year students preparing to write WASSCE this year, 2021, and how this will be funded;

2) To ask the Minister for Education how much it cost the state to procure 568,755 past exam questions for students who wrote WASSCE in 2020, and the source of funds for the procurement. The written answers of the Minister, which he made in Parliament revealed the following.

Government in 2020 and 2021 spent 68,513,455 ghc from the Free Senior High School Account to procure 1,035,733 units of past exam questions for 2020 and 2021.

For this year, 2021, Government has already spent 34,862,412ghc on 446,958 past questions at a unit price of 78ghc from Messers Kingdom Books and Stationery via sole sourcing.

In 2020, Government spent 33,644,043ghc to procure 568,755 past exam questions via sole sourcing from same Kingdom Books and Stationery at a unit priceof 59ghc.

Why Government will spend 68,513,455.75ghc to buy 1,035,733 exam questions through sole source from same company two years in a row, and agree to pay for same exam questions at 78ghc per unit, when it paid 59ghc per unit only a year ago, a whooping 32% increase, begs the question.

Interestingly the price of textbooks used by Senior High School students have not increased over the period. So how can past cost of past exam questions increased by 32% from the same supplier. I will share the content follow up questions and follow ups by colleagues at a later date.

Stay turned.

Dr. Clement Apaak
M.P, Builsa South and Deputy Ranking Member On Education Committee