The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC) is listed as one of the sponsors of the "goofy" Independence Day brochure, but the CEO of GIFEC, Kobby Acheampong has denied they sponsored the printing of the brochure or the event itself.

The 31-page brochure, which generated so much controversy due to the many unpardonable mistakes it contained, allegedly cost the state a whopping GHS450,000.

It listed Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyata as President of Ghana among several other grammatical and spelling errors.

When the gaffe became apparent, at least one top civil servant lost his job and presidential communications duties were placed under the Communications Minister.

But firmly listed among the four sponsors on the 30th page of the brochure was GIFEC, a state institution set up under the Communications Ministry to run a universal access fund contributed by telecom service providers to bridge the digital divide between the unserved/under-served communities and the rest of the country.

The other three sponsors listed in the brochure were all private entities, and they comprised of Nestle Ghana, MPG - a pharmaceutical company, and Gerofix - an advertising company, all of which make their own private money.

Some board members of GIFEC, who are mandated by law to approve of every expenditure GIFEC makes, expressed worry when Adom News approached them and asked about how GIFEC's name got into the brochure.

Some were simply unhappy about the "embarrassment", while others said the GIFEC management may have done so from the annual financial allocation the board approves as "Support for the Ministry of Communications" so there was no cause for alarm.

But GIFEC CEO, Kobby Acheampong told Adom News in no uncertain terms that "we did not sponsor the printing of that brochure and we did not sponsor that event."

He explained that GIFEC supplied computers for the annual presidential awards to the best students across the country, and he would imagine that the event organizers felt they should acknowledge GIFEC by including them in the list of sponsors.

Kobby Acheampong thinks including GIFEC in the list of sponsors was wrong because it creates the impression that they are misapplying the funds given to them by the telcos.

Funding

The full source of funding and legal mandate of GIFEC could be found in Sections 31 - 48 of the Electronic Communication Acts, Act 775, 2008.

The financial contributors include telecom service providers (one per cent of each of their annual profits), Parliamentary approvals, investments by the fund, donations and any other legal source identified.

But the telcos contribute an overwhelmingly huge chunk of the GIFEC money. The 2012 Auditor-General's Report, for instance, indicates that out of about GHS22.34million contributed into the fund that year, the telcos alone contributed GHS18.7million, which represents a whopping 83.7% of the total.

In the previous year, 2011, telcos contributed almost GHS16 million out of the GHS21million plus, which was 76% of the total money in the GIFEC fund. For both years, the rest of the money came from investments; none from Parliament and donations.

Indeed, Kobby Acheampong admitted that "all the money we get for our projects are from the telcos and we invest into government bonds and other financial instruments with other financial institutions to make some profits just to shore up our revenue to fulfill our mandate."

In spite of this huge contribution telcos make to GIFEC, the former Chief Executive Officer of the fund, Kofi Attor, who is still a member of the Board of Trustees, recently called for an increase in the telco's contribution from one per cent to two per cent of their profits.

Meanwhile, the telcos, who constitute a greater majority of the GIFEC Board, have been questioning how much of moneys the GIFEC management has really been using on its core mandate.

Core Mandate

Section 45 of the law, in particular, spells out categorically that the fund shall only be applied to things within its mandate, or for activities incidental to its mandate.

Kobby Acheampong stated that the scope of the mandate include any activity geared towards bridging the digital divide between "the haves and have nots".

He explained that beyond mounting telecom masts in areas where it does not make economic sense for individual telcos to mount their own masts, GIFEC is also mandated by law to provide ICT infrastructure and connectivity pro bono to communities and institutions that lack them.

So far GIFEC on its own has mounted 51 telecom masts, supplied computer labs to all 38 colleges of education, all 28 technical school, all 37 vocational schools, 24 community development schools, and over 60 integrated community employable skills institutions. All the beneficiary institution also got two years free internet connectivity.

GIFEC has also distributed over 27,000 laptops to about 700 junior high schools mainly in the deprived area, and supplied over 250 fishermen with fish finders that assist them to locate where mature fish are to make fishing easier.

They also train people for various government institutions in the use of ICT tools. Last year alone over 500 people were trained for the various ministries departments and agencies.

This year, GIFEC the target is to train 5000, and this will included mainly artisans and particularly drivers who need ICT to understand and master the processes at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA).

GIFEC also runs a universal emergency call line, 112, which allows phone users to call a central point to be redirected to the appropriate quarters to the needed assistance.

Support to Ministry of Communication

By law, the GIFEC Board of Trustees is chaired by the Minister of Communications, but no part of the law mandates GIFEC to give financial support to the Ministry of Communication annually.

A board member said the support, even though lacks legal backing, often goes to sponsor people selected by the ministry for ITU conferences and other such events every year.

Kobby Acheampong said GIFEC "cherishes" the annual and occasional support they provide for the Ministry of Communications with the full approval of the Board.

He explained that as an institution under the Communications Ministry, he did not see anything wrong with GIFEC intervening to help the ministry as and when the latter is in a difficult.

"When I was at Youth Employment Agency (YEA) the law mandated us to support the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations with five per cent of our revenues so these things are done and in the same light we cherish our support to the Ministry of Communications," he said.

But whereas the YEA support for its mother ministry was backed by law, GIFEC's support for the Communications Ministry is not and yet Board members, legally charged with ensuring that funds are used only for core and incidental activities, approve of annual support for the ministry.