Two Trade Unions within the Educational Sector, Innovative Teachers, and All Teachers Alliance Ghana (ATAG), have jointly dragged the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Attorney-General, and the Ministry of Education to court over the procurement of laptops for teachers.
The Unions are alleging that the company the Ministry of Education has contracted to provide the 1 teacher 1 laptop lack the capacity to deliver.
According to them, teachers deserve the best, adding that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration did the same with the RLG Company which seems to suggest that politicians want substandard products for the ordinary Ghanaian.
“In Law the Ministry of Education ought to have inspected that company on who they are before awarding the contract. We are not the ones to educate the Ministry of Education as to what the proper thing to do. So when people do some of these things they know what their intentions are.
“For us, we went searching for their documentation and we discovered that they don’t have the capacity to enter into a contract and that is why we are in court. It is in the interest of all the teachers in Ghana. We have been disrespected in the country for so long and we also deserve the best,” the Founder for ATAG, Stephen Ayens told Naa Dedei on Starr Today, Monday 15TH November 2021.
They are among other things demanding “that the 4th Defendant has failed to publish the details of the contract on the website of the Public Procurement Authority, contrary to section 3 c (1 and 2) of the Public Procurement Act in an attempt to hide the transaction from public scrutiny.
The continued “the 1st Defendant lacks the capacity to enter into contractual relations with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Defendants acting for the government of Ghana to manufacture and distribute laptops to all teachers throughout the country,” and that “the 1st Defendant does not meet the Mandatory Eligibility Criteria as set forth in Section III (C) of the procurement of the Information Technology Product document issued by the Public Procurement Authority, Ghana for the year 2019.”
Attached below is the writ from the Teacher Unions:
Source: Ghana/Starrfm.com.gh/103.5FM/Isaac Dzidzoamenu