Minority directs a probe into ¢68.5m WASSCE Pasco photocopying

The Minority in Parliament has called for investigations into the expenditure amounting to GH¢68.5 million spent on photocopying past questions also known as Pasco for WASSCE candidates in the 2020 and 2021 academic year.

The caucus in Parliament comes after the Minister of Education (MoE), Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum said his outfit spent GH¢33.6 million in 2020 and over GH¢34 million in 2021 for this purpose, utilizing single-source procurement methods.

“To help prepare the final year Senior High School students for the 2021 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE), the Ministry has procured 446,954 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) questions from Messrs Kingdom Books and Stationery at a unit price of GH¢78.00. The procurement will be funded from the Free Senior High School Account.

Mr Speaker, in 2020, Government through its efforts to help students amidst COVID-19 to prepare for the 2020 West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) procured 568,755 past questions for students to try their hands on before sitting for the actual exams.”

The Ministry of Education contracted Messrs Kingdom Books and Stationery to supply 568,755 WASSCE past questions at a contract price of GHS 33,641,043.75. The procurement of these questions was funded through the Free Senior High School Account and the results of the 2020 WASSCE were tremendous compared to previous years’ WASSCE performance.

Mr. Speaker, the procurement process for the supply of published textbooks to Basic Schools is currently ongoing. The Ministry placed an advert in the Ghanaian Times on 1st June 2020, where various publishers approved by NaCCA, submitted their books and relevant documents to be taken through a Pre-Qualification procurement process,” he told Parliament.

Member of Parliament for Ashaiman, Ernest Norgbey, speaking to the media, stressed the need for a thorough investigation by the Special Prosecutor to address what the caucus perceives as possible corrupt activities.

“We cannot countenance this, and this is fraud. If this is not corruption, what else will be corruption? A photocopy costs GH¢78 per paper, and GH¢59.10 per paper, totalling GH¢68.5 million, what are we doing?

And so, we in the Minority are taking strong exception to this, and we are saying that the Special Prosecutor must look into this matter” the Ashaiman lawmaker told journalists.

Meanwhile, the West African Examinations Council says the questions in the government’s past questions booklets given to final year SHS students do not represent the questions for this year’s WASSCE and that candidates who rely on the Pasco do so at their peril.

Martin Mensah, the Senior Assistant Registrar Records & Aptitude Test Department – WAEC in an interview monitored by Thisterm.com said the past question booklet is only to guide the students preparing to sit for the exams.

“I would like to emphasise that past questions are materials sent out to guide the candidates on how to answer the WASSCE questions but if you rely on them and these questions do not drop you will be in hot waters,” he stated.

The WAEC Senior Assistant Registrar encouraged the prospective candidates to study their books and go by the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the international examination to be administered this academic year.