The Ministry of Education has taken steps to recover an amount of GH¢859,115.46 from IT company, TANIT Ltd.
The Company was contracted to provide digital teacher training content and platform in 2021.
In a letter dated 22nd June 2022, the Ministry requested the IT Company to refund all payments made to them after it failed to meet the tenets of the contract signed between the two parties on 26th July 2021.
In another letter dated 18th July 2022, the Ministry reminded the company to refund all payments as they did not perform their obligation under the contract agreement that was supposed to be have been completed within five months.
The fund for the programme was available till November, 2021.
According to the Ministry, it received a letter from TANIT Ltd dated 14th February 2022 requesting the remaining payment of 85 per cent of the contract sum amounting to GH¢4,940,827.72 as per the deliverable schedule in the contract.
The Education Ministry was expecting TANIT Ltd to have performed each of the five deliverables and submit a claim respectively for work done at each stage as spelt out in the contract and report for verification before moving to the next stage.
The five deliverables spelt out in the contract by the Ministry to TANIT Ltd are:
1. Submission of inception report by August 2021 attracting payment of 15 per cent of the contract sum. This was met by TANIT Ltd.
2. Design, construct and build a platform for the training of teachers online by September, 2021 attracting payment of 25 per cent.
3. Develop and build curriculum design by October 2021 also attracting 20 per cent payment.
4. Operationalise a dashboard, platform sign off and go live by November 2021 which also attracts payment of 20 per cent.
5. Consultant to be required to stay on board for additional two months (December 2021 to January 2022) after the project goes live for quality assurance which attracts the remaining 20 per cent.
TANIT Ltd, according to the Ministry, did not submit monthly reports for the remaining four deliverables but rather lumped the four reports together and requested the payment of the remaining 85 per cent contract sum.
In addition, TANIT Ltd also failed to complete the project within the five-month period as prescribed by the contract.
Background
TANIT Ltd submitted a lumped payment claim of the remaining 85 per cent on 14th February 2022. Meanwhile, the contract that was signed on 26th July 2021 was supposed to have been completed by January 2022.
The Ministry noted that TANIT Ltd’s contract was not terminated as is being speculated but it rather expired forcing the Education Ministry to seek support from another source for the successful execution of the project.
The Education Ministry is therefore informing the general public of its commitment to making good use of resources it received from the government for the provision of quality education to all Ghanaians irrespective of location.
Again, the Ministry did not cook up figures but gave actual training figures to merit the payment of the project fund from the World Bank.