The alleged ambitions of former Education Minister Mathew Opoku Prempeh popularly known as Napo to become Vice Presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) in 2024 has been dented by a scandal covering the procurement of 853,000 pieces of mathematical sets which Africa Education Watch (AEW) has revealed were overpriced and fleecing and were not delivered on time and in full since 2019.
The Maths Sets scandal which trended for several days on social media saw Napo come under severe attack from several quarters including from persons within his own party who said this scandal is likely to dent his image and chances at being running mate if he indeed has such ambitions.
MyNewsGh.com is reliably informed this is only one out of a series of scandals that will hit the former education Minister over his stewardship of the education sector for the last four years for which he has to answer. This comes even before he officially starts work at the Energy Ministry where he has been reappointed.
Maths set scandal
MyNewsGh.com was the original website that broke the news of the maths sets contracts and the arrests of Kwadwo Darko-Mensah, which all other website picked from.
This scandal came up over the procurement of 853,000 pieces of Kapek Mathematical Sets Instruments at Gh¢75 each, which Africa Education Watch revealed Liberia and Sierra Leone procured the same Kapek Mathematical sets Instruments from the same company even at retail price got it cheaper than what Ghana got for wholesale of 853,000 pieces.
MyNewsGh.com was also informed that the person behind the contract is the wife of big man who owns a big beach resort in Ghana but used Bluegrass Limited owned by Onasis Kwadwo Darko-Mensah as a front.
In a rather dramatic twist, Africa Education Watch also revealed that the actual price of the Mathematical Sets was Gh¢93 and not Gh¢75 as the Ministry of Education claimed.
According to Kofi Asare who is Executive Director of the Africa Education Watch, the actual price of the Kapek Mathematical sets procured by Ghana on sole-sourcing basis was higher than the Gh¢75 government announced because the 75 cedis excluded the tax exemption of $3.6million granted to the contractor, one Kwadwo Darko-Mensah.
CEO of Africa Education Watch, Mr. Kofi Asare said it is “very funny” for Education Ministry to justify the price of the mathematical sets using Kapek scientific calculator as decoy, as the same package costs far less in Liberia and Sierra Leone which also operate under WAEC.
The difference between KAPEK and the real scientific calculator is, KAPEK has no memory and cannot be programmed; Just to prevent students from putting stuff on then into the exam room. That is all.
So it is cheaper than the regular scientific calculator which is programmable. As for the plastic mathset it comes with, we know the price. Just go to Makola. Its less than GH 20. Infact, a similar KAPEK Mathematical Instrument sells for $10 In Liberia and $12 in Sierra Leone at retail; not wholesale. (Both WAEC member countries)
This Blue Grass Company bought ours at international distributor bulk order quantity of 850,000 and still supplied to government at $17 (inclusive the taxes*)
The unit cost is not GH 75; its GH 93. The GH 17 million tax exemption must be added to the GH 63 million and divided by the 853,000 pieces. He explained.
He said WAEC also didn’t make it compulsory to acquire the math sets as claimed by Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh to justify the contract.
My News Gh
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