The World Bank has stated that the items to be provided with a loan Ghana is sourcing from it will not go through the normal procurement process.
Parliament on Wednesday approved a $156 million loan facility to be sourced from the World Bank to finance the Ghana Secondary School Education Improvement Project.
Part of that amount would be used to buy sanitary pads and other essential school items to be distributed for free to school girls.
Some have expressed fear this procurement process will open the way for another corrupt opportunity.
But a Senior Education Specialist at the World Bank, Eunice Yaa Brefi Akweh says procuring the items for the various schools will be done differently.
On the Citi Breakfast Show, Akweh said the project is results based “and it is not like the traditional projects where you determine each item that the money will be used for.”
Citing some of the agreements in the contract, she explained that heads of schools which will be selected for rehabilitation and expansion will be made to determine what will improve access and quality of education in their respective schools before funding will be given.
She indicated that the heads of these schools “will be held accountable for the indicators and the results that you agree to.”
The World Bank Ghana’s Senior Education Specialist quickly added that it is possible for some schools to reject the provision of sanitary pads.
Meanwhile, government says critics of its decision to distribute sanitary pads to deprived school girls for free got it all wrong.
By: Efua Idan Osam/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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