The World Bank has threatened to take legal action against Ghana’s government if it fails to produce audited financial accounts for the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project within 30 days (GALOP).
In an October 21 letter to Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta, Pierre Laporte, the World Country Director to Ghana, expressed concern about the audit statement not being completed within six months of the end of one fiscal year, as required by the International Development Association and Ghana’s financial agreement.
Because the declaration is four months late, the World Bank says it will investigate the “possibility of taking the relevant legal remedies under the Financing Agreement” against the government.
“In accordance with Section 5.09(b)(ii) of the General Conditions incorporated by reference in the Financing Agreement and as specified in paragraph II (ii) of the Disbursement and Financial Information Letter (DFIL), the Recipient is required to provide audited financial statements covering the Recipient’s fiscal year no later than six (6) months after the end of such period.” We would like to point out that, as of today, October 18, 2022, the Association has not received the audited financial accounts for the fiscal year ending December 20, 2021, as required by the General Conditions.
“The Association is concerned that over ten (10) months after the fiscal year ended, an independent audit report on the usage of funds has yet to be provided to the Association.”
“Given that the audited financial statements are now four (4) months overdue, and with the Audit Compliance Guidance, we write to inform you that unless you come into compliance within the next thirty (30) days from the date of this letter, the Association may have no choice but to explore the possibility of exercising the appropriate legal remedies under the Financing Agreement,” the letter read in part.
As a result, Pierre Laporte has demanded that Ofori-Atta deal to the brewing issue in order for the audit requirement to be met.
“We believe that your personal and urgent attention to this subject will enable prompt compliance with the audit standards alluded to above,” the letter said.
Adutwum and GALOP training squabble
In May of this year, Education Minister Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum was reportedly caught up in an alleged phantom training session for nearly 40,000 teachers on the GALOP digital literacy platform, for which the World Bank had provided $1.2 million.
This came to light after the then-Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Prof Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, stated in a letter to the Education Minister on March 30, 2022, that the GES was “unaware that any such training had taken place” and asked him to “advise and provide direction to enable the GES to respond appropriately to the World Bank inquiries.”
According to a myjoyonline.com report, the World Bank wrote to the then GES D-G after Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum failed to respond by the end of January 14, 2022, on queries about whether the training had taken place, despite claims by the Education Ministry’s Chief Director, Benjamin Gyasi, that it had “exceeded the target of 40,000 teachers to be trained, insisting PBC7.2B has been achieved.”
In response to concerns that the minister had filed a false report on the training, the MoE’s Press Secretary, Felix A Baidoo, strongly rejected it in a statement, stating it was a smear effort against the minister.
“Unfortunately, it is now clearer than ever that those behind such character assassinating reports are deliberately launching a vicious smear campaign project against the patriotic, selfless, and hardworking Minister of Education, Dr. Osei Adutwum, for reasons best known to themselves,” the statement said.
Read the letter from World Bank addressed to Ofori-Atta below:
