The Fourth Estate to Release Complete List of Awardees Soon : Scholarship Bonanza
The Fourth Estate set to unveil full list of awardees soon: Scholarship bonanza on the horizon. Stay tuned for exciting updates.
The Fourth Estate, a private media outlet, plans to release the comprehensive list of scholarship recipients from 2019 and 2020, as revealed by its investigative report. The investigation uncovered instances where influential individuals, as well as relatives and associates of powerful figures, were awarded scholarships, contrary to the Scholarship Secretariat’s intended goal of assisting academically gifted but financially needy students.
Despite initially being denied access to the beneficiary list by the Scholarship Secretariat in March 2021, The Fourth Estate persisted and obtained approval from the Right to Information (RTI) Commission for disclosure, emphasizing the importance of transparency in the use of public funds. However, personal information will be redacted before the data is made public.
The Scholarship Secretariat’s response to the RTI request revealed expenditures of GHS237.5 million and GHS200 million in 2019 and 2020, respectively, covering both local and foreign scholarships. Seth Kwame Bokpe, a journalist with The Fourth Estate, confirmed plans to publish the full list of over 900 beneficiaries soon, along with a value-for-money analysis.
The beneficiaries included notable members and activists of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), such as a special assistant to the Second Lady, Samira Bawumia, who received GBP17,355 for studies in the United Kingdom but did not physically attend the university, dropping out after a few online classes from Ghana.
Additionally, there were instances of individuals receiving multiple scholarships, with at least 26 people benefiting from multiple awards to pursue different programs either consecutively or concurrently.
Source: Citinews
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