Former NUGS president petitions Special Prosecutor over rot at Scholarship Secretariat

Deputy National Youth Organiser of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) Osman Ayariga has petitioned the Special Prosecutor to look into suspected acts of corruption at the Scholarship Secretariat.

The former President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) is seeking to invoke the OSPs’ jurisdiction under Sections 2(a), 3(1)(g) and 79 of The Office of Special Prosecutor Act, 2017 (ACT 959) to investigate all cases of suspected corruption and corruption-related offences unearthed by the recent investigative work of the Fourth Estate in relation to the award of scholarships by the Scholarship Secretariat.

Portions of his petition said “It has become necessary to petition your office due to the despicable magnitude of abuse the Scholarship secretariat under the current leadership has exhibited. I am therefore by this petition calling for a full-scale investigation into the activities of the Registrar and associated staff of the secretariat regarding the award of scholarships.

“The investigative report into the operations of the secretariat coupled with audio recordings from Joyfm reveal the following:

1. Damning instances where staff at the secretariat demand prior payments of commission from students seeking scholarships before such approvals are given. Some beneficiaries who spoke out publicly indicated they were made to undertake a transfer of a percentage of the approved scholarship amount to compensate for securing the scholarships.

2. The investigation discovered instances where people received double sponsorship for the same course of study from the secretariat and other institutions. One such person is Dr. Dennis Addo who received in total of USD50,031 for post graduate studies from the secretariat and also an undisclosed amount from the institution od study. Further details can be found in the investigative report of the Fourth Estate.

3. There are instances where those who secured scholarships never undertook the courses but failed to refund the disbursed amount to the secretariat. A notable example is in the person of Fawzy Ramadan, a relative and special assistant of the Second Lady of Ghana, Mrs Samira Bawumia.

His petition follows a recent publication by the Fourth Estate dubbed ‘Scholarship Bonanza’ alleging, among other things, that scholarships are being unfairly distributed to well-connected affluent individuals.

The Fourth Estate in its latest publication christened ‘Scholarship Bonanza’ has named persons close to key government officials as beneficiaries of scholarships that it deems inappropriate. But the Registrar maintains the secretariat did nothing wrong.

Dr Parte Ante stressed that “First and foremost we have to understand that we are pushing a lot of money into giving scholarships to students who technically are supposed to come back and support the growth of the economy and if that money is being misapplied then it means that we are just waiting the limited resources that we have, that is the reason that any government or anybody in the country will be interested in delving into this to find out what really is the situation.

“I understand the call from the Minority that the Special Prosecutor sh