The Administrator of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFUND), Mr Fosuabah Mensah Banahene, on Thursday said government was to pay the 207 billion cedis arrears to the Fund over a five-year period.

He said the arrears, which started mounting in the very first year of the Fund, had significantly stalled the development of infrastructure in educational institutions throughout the country.

Mr Banahene said this at the maiden Weekly Press Briefing instituted by the Ministry of Information in Accra.

The briefing is meant to be a one-stop-shop for providing information on pertinent issues raised by the media.

This week's briefing featured issues pertaining to the GETFund, National Identification Card and the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA).

Mr Banahene said the amount is made up of 65.3 billion cedis being arrears for 2000 and 100 billion cedis for 2001 while 2002 had arrears of 65 billion cedis.

He explained that the Fund was now doing well and currently undertaking a number of projects across the country.

Mr Banahene said a significant number of development projects by the Fund were underway at all the five Universities, 10 Polytechnics and other educational institutions scattered across the country.

"This was after some funds were made available sometime in 2001 and last year and we can now say that work is going on smoothly to enhance teaching and learning in Ghana."

Mr Banahene said annual revenue accruing to the Fund depended largely on VAT proceeds to government coffers.

Mr Banahene, however, complained about the difficulty in maintaining staff of the Fund.

"We have severe difficulty in getting the right calibre of staff and those we attract do not stay for long since we have to stick to civil service payment terms. This usually is not attractive enough and they leave after a short while."

He said they now have to employ staff on contract basis.

Dr Gheysika Agambilla, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Ports, Harbours and Railways, commenting on the matters raised on the award of a contract by GPHA, said it was clear that some details of the contract information were not made to the local evaluating team.

"They got it later and worked on it though," he said of the 60 million dollars contract.

He said this could explain the discrepancies in the different figures quoted as the contract figure by Interbeton, the company that won the bid to undertake developments at the Tema Port.

He explained that the law establishing the GPHA gave it the mandate to contract external loans independent of government.

"Therefore, it does not necessarily need the approval of Parliament to contract for loans," Dr Agamibilla said.

He admitted that only Parliament could grant exemptions adding that was why GPHA wrote to the Ministry of Finance and Parliament on the matter.

The Ghanaian Chronicle, originator of the story, was not satisfied saying it did not understand why a contract that had been signed already was yet to have a specified sum.