Newly appointed Education Minister, Lee Ocran, has stepped into the scandalous $44 million Social Studies Atlas for Junior High School (JHS) pupils, calling for a meeting between his ministry and the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) to settle the impasse.

The GETFund insists that it has no funding for the $44 million Atlas contract signed by the Ministry of Education and five publishers, even as Deputy Education Minister Mahama Ayariga fights tooth and nail to extricate himself from the scandal.

He claimed that he had not inflated the price for the books, saying that the process for the procurement of the atlas started from 2008, long before he got to the Ministry.

According to him, the books ordered are not ‘atlases’ as put out by the media. He said they are Social Studies textbooks with atlases to help the students to understand what has been written in the book.

“Social Studies Atlas is not just an Atlas; it’s a Social Studies textbook with atlases illustrating concepts, systems and ideas that are being taught in schools…the price that has been quoted is the production of the books because it is the suppliers who are supposed to provide the books at the schools. So this is production cost, printing cost and delivering to where the books at the schools. So this is production cost, printing cost and delivering to where the books are supposed to go to,” he told Peace FM on Monday.

A copy of the book from Approachers series available to Daily Guide shows that there is nothing to write home about the book because the content is not deep enough to be referred to as a text book. It is a 92-page book illustrated with maps and some write-ups.

Checks by Daily Guide revealed that the process rather started from 2009 when Alex Tettey Enyo was appointed Minster of Education and passed it over to Betty Mould Iddrisu, after which the process stalled before Betty’s unceremonious exit from the Ministry, when the GETFund made it clear that it would not pay.

But before a new Minster assumed office, Ayariga activated the process again, ordering GETFund to pay the money.

Ayariga had ordered the GETFund to look for money at all cost and pay the five publishers for the book whose content is not different from JHS current Social Studies as well as Civic textbooks.

He even suggested to GETFund that it should take commercial loan at 29% interest rate from NDK Financial Services owned by an NDC chieftain, Oko Nikoi Dzani.

“It would be highly appreciated if you could take steps to source a loan facility to cover the advance mobilization not exceeding the prime interest rate of 17% p.a. interest,” Ayariga said.

The other 12% of the 29 interest charged by NDK had been absorbed by Approachers, an indication that the company is making more than enough profit from the contract, having secured the lion’s share of $25 million.

With a wide gulf created between the Ministry and GETFund chaired the NDC National Chairman, Dr. Kwabena Adjei, Lee Ocran has written to the Fund Administrator, Sam Garba, inviting him to a meeting at his office today.

But the GETFund source said the position of the agency had not changed because it had simply not got a budget for it.

According to the source, the Ministry could take the loan at NDK and use it to offset the cost of the book. “That is our back case,” the source said.

At a meeting held on December 30, 2011 at Sogakope, the Fund agreed on a particular formula for 2012 and procurement atlas book is no near it.

The GETFund total accruals for 2012 from VAT receipts are about GH¢600 million and therefore cannot pay $44 million (GH¢ 66 million) for just an atlas which is not a recommended textbook for JHS pupils.

“Under the terms of the contract, 5% mobilization is expected to be advanced to the publishers against advance payment guarantee from a financial institution…Due to the urgency of the request, we trust that you will deal with the matter expeditiously,” Mr. Ayariga had written in a letter dated January 31, 2012, to GETFund, a few days after Betty Mould-Iddrisu had resigned as Minister.

The five publishers and their allocations were Approachers Ghana Ltd., $25,000,000; EPP Books services, $7,496,000; Winmat Publishers Ltd., $5,500,000; Adwinsa Publishers, %5,000,000; and Sedco Publishing Ltd., $1,000,000, all totaling $43,996,000.