Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance
An Accra Fast Track High Court has ordered the Finance Ministry to immediately pay all outstanding arrears owed the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) .
The court presided over by Justice LL Mensah said the Ministry’s failure to pay statutory funds into the GETFund was illegal.
The court also held that the applicant, Richard Nyamah had capacity to bring the application contrary to the argument by the Attorney General (AG) that he had no personal interest.
Mr. Nyamah filed an Ex-parte motion in 2013 praying the Court to compel the Finance Ministry to pay the outstanding money into the GETFund as required by law.
According to him, the Ministry owes the GETFund approximately GHC 687 million.
The debt, he says, has halted the GETFund’s infrastructural development plans and other projects it intended to embark on.
Speaking to Citi News , Mr. Nyamah said the court’s ruling signifies victory for Ghanaians.
‘It is victory for Ghanaians as a whole and I don’t take this as my personal victory because the GETFund cuts across from the tertiary level to the primary level,’ he said.
Meanwhile, lead counsel for Richard Nyamah, Sean Opoku, told Citi News, he will file another motion to seek for a definite time line for which the Ministry must make the payment.
According to him, the Court only instructed the Ministry to pay the debt but failed to give a definite time for the payment to be made.
The GETFund is a public trust set up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 with the core mandate of providing funding to supplement government effort in the provision of infrastructure and facilities within the public sector from the pre-tertiary to tertiary level.
It also provides funding to support the procurement of education equipment and promotion of staff development and research especially at the tertiary level.
However, GETFund is among the many statutory organizations owed by the government.
Source: Citifmonline.com
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