It has emerged that the government spent US$18.4 million in the first six months of 2019 for the payment of allowances for government employees and sponsored students attending seminars and courses abroad.
This is according to a report from the Auditor-General on the Bank of Ghana’s foreign exchange receipts and payments for the half-year ended June 30, 2019.
Captured under transactions known as invisible payments, the allowances were meant to support manpower, training and development.
“These were allowances paid to government-sponsored students and government employees attending seminars and courses abroad. Total transfers for the period of 2019 were US$18,471,100.08 compared with US$19,672,749.68 for the corresponding period of 2018, recording a decrease of US$1,201,649.60 or 6.11%. The decrease was mainly due to a reduction in payment for government-sponsored students abroad and public officers attending courses abroad.”
Invisible payments
Invisible payments were made up of manpower, training and development, embassy transfers, progress payments to contractors, management and technical services fees, capital subscriptions and sundry payments.
Total invisible payments for 2018 were US$1,486,302,409.33 compared with US$987,067,205.12 for the corresponding period of 2017, registering an increase of US$499,235,204.21 or 50.58%.
The increase was due to increases in all the components with the exception of Institutional Subscription.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Ghana BoG’s projection for invisible payments was US$1,188,440,000.00 whereas actual payments were US$1,486,302,409.33 showing an unfavourable difference of US$297,862,409.33 or 25.06%.
A breakdown of invisible payments for the period is provided below.
This report is coming on the back of a similar one that indicted the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) for breaching its mandate and illegally funding foreign scholarships in a performance audit of the fund.
The performance audit report said the GETFund Secretariat overstepped its mandate and administered the scholarship itself.
The report also said, “GETFund did not establish any systems, policies and procedures to ensure the economic, efficient and effective use of public funds.”
The Auditor-General concluded that the failings of the GETFund led to brilliant but needy students being deprived of scholarship in favour of politicians in some cases.
According to the GETFund’s Annual Reports from 2012 to 2018, the secretariat spent GHS425,698,937 on scholarships on 3,112 beneficiaries out of which 2,217 persons were unlawfully granted scholarships to study abroad.
Find the full report here