{"id":2172,"date":"2019-01-22T09:44:57","date_gmt":"2019-01-22T09:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aptnewsghana.com\/?p=2172"},"modified":"2019-01-22T09:45:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-22T09:45:04","slug":"no-more-oil-money-for-free-shs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aptnewsghana.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/22\/no-more-oil-money-for-free-shs\/","title":{"rendered":"No more oil money for Free SHS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The government has decided to completely cut the Annual Budget \nFunding Amount (ABFA) allocation for its Free Senior High School \nprogramme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means the government will not spend proceeds from the country\u2019s \noil resources on the programme which is entering its third year of \nimplementation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education on the \nannual budget estimates of the Ministry of Education for the 2019 \nfinancial year stated that the ministry\u2019s 2019 budgetary allocation of \nGH\u00a212.87 billion would not be sourced from the ABFA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of the GH\u00a212.87 billion allocated to the ministry to fund its \nprogrammes and activities, GH\u00a21.682 billion had been earmarked for the \nimplementation of the Free SHS programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given that the Scholarship Secretariat which operates under the \nOffice of Government Machinery has been tasked to cater for the direct \nfunding of the Free SHS programme since 2018, the GH\u00a21.682 billion \nbudgetary allocation for the programme had been pencilled out of the \ntotal budgetary allocation to the ministry for the Scholarship \nSecretariat.<\/ins>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amount has, however, been appropriately captured under the Office\n of Government Machinery, leaving the ministry with GH\u00a211.195 billion to\n cater for physical infrastructure and service delivery in education, a \npriority area that has been funded directly from the ABFA in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ABFA allocation to Physical Infrastructure and Service Delivery \nin Education in 2018 overshadowed allocations to other priority areas \nsuch as agriculture and service delivery in health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, out of the GH\u00a21.546.38 billion approved to be spent as \nABFA in the year 2018, of which a total of GH\u00a2610.18 million, \nrepresenting 49.0 per cent of total ABFA receipts, education alone \nreceived over GH\u00a2417 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Criticisms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, the government reduced the ABFA allocation to the ministry\n by a staggering 95.3 per cent, from GH\u00a2212 million in 2017 to GH\u00a210 \nmillion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This followed stiff criticisms by civil society groups that it was \nrisky for the government to rely solely on oil revenue to fund the free \nSHS programme, insisting that it must diversify its sources of funding \nfor the programme due to the instability of oil prices on the world \nmarket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minority in Parliament insisted that using oil money to fund the \nprogramme at the detriment of other sectors of the economy was \nunconstitutional, and threatened to head to court to seek redress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To counter those assertions, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo \nsaid the use of the country\u2019s oil revenues to fund the Free SHS \nprogramme was the most appropriate use of the funds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are using some of the income from our oil revenue to fund the \nprogramme. I believe strongly that this is the most equitable and \ntransparent use of the oil revenue, instead of it finding its way into \nthe pockets of politicians and bureaucrats,\u201d President Akufo-Addo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Govt U-turn<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the strong stance of the President to use proceeds from the \ncountry\u2019s oil revenue to fund the programme which is one of its flagship\n initiatives, the GRAPHIC BUSINESS has learnt that the Ministry of \nEducation was not allocated funds from the ABFA this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Restricting the funding of the programme with oil proceeds may spark \noff the vexed conversation about the sustainability and smooth run of \nthe programme. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The Chairman of the Public Interest Accountability Committee, Dr \nSteve Manteaw, told the paper that his office had the understanding that\n the government was funding the Free SHS programme from the ABFA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy understanding is that the ABFA was catering for the fees of the SHS students, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRMA restrictions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In examining the use of oil revenue in the country, the Petroleum \nRevenue Management Act (PRMA) states that after the Ghana National \nPetroleum Commission (GNPC) receives its portion of oil profit, 70 per \ncent of the remaining profit must be lodged in the ABFA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law also stipulates that 70 per cent of the ABFA must be invested in infrastructure projects with the remaining 30 per cent to be allocated to priority areas, including education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

credit: graphic.com.gh<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The government has decided to completely cut the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) allocation for its Free Senior High School programme. This means the government […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[89,108],"class_list":["post-2172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-education","tag-free-shs"],"yoast_head":"\nNo more oil money for Free SHS - Apt News Ghana<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This means the government will not spend proceeds from the country\u2019s oil resources on the free shs which is entering its third year.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aptnewsghana.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/22\/no-more-oil-money-for-free-shs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No more oil money for Free SHS - 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