Deputy Minister for Education, Dr Clement Apaak, has rejected claims from the Minority in Parliament that the government is inflating the cost of sanitary pads being distributed to female students.
This comes after the Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, on Tuesday, questioned the allocation of GH¢292 million for the procurement of 6.6 million sanitary pads.
He argued that the figures do not match current market prices, suggesting possible inflation in the cost.
Read also: Minority accuses gov’t of overpricing free sanitary pad project
Speaking to journalists in Parliament on Wednesday, November 26, Dr Apaak insisted that the claims were baseless and politically motivated.
He argued that the Minority was determined to manufacture a “scandal” to damage the reputation of the Mahama administration.
Dr Apaak said the Old Tafo MP had engaged in calculations that were misleading.
“For the Honourable Member of Parliament to disingenuously perform what the Minister for Education, Haruna Iddrisu, has described as chop-bar arithmetic, we can only conclude that it is yet another desperate attempt to try and enthuse the existence of a scandal to the John Dramani Mahama-led government so that the decomposing elephant can seek to equalise,” Dr Apaak said.
The Deputy Education Minister noted that there was no wrongdoing.
“There is no scandal. There would never be a scandal. The NDC under John Dramani Mahama, the Minister of Education, has not procured a pack of sanitary pads at 45 Ghana cedis and will never do so,” he said.
Dr Apaak added that the government has been transparent throughout the process and is committed to ensuring value for money.
“We have statistics as a transparent, accountable government which promised the good people of this country to reset our governance and to ensure value for money,” he said.
According to him, 3.9 million sanitary pads have so far been distributed to pupils in 20,744 public basic schools. In addition, 2.6 million pads have been supplied to girls in 906 senior high and TVET institutions.
He explained that a total of 398,701 pupils in basic schools have benefited from the programme. At the junior high school level, 1.1 million girls have received pads, while 968,285 girls in senior high schools have benefited.
Dr Apaak said the intervention has so far reached 2,578,915 female students from primary five to senior high school, describing it as “life-changing” and insisting the programme is being implemented with integrity.
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