The Attorney-General and Minister for Justice of Ghana and three others, including two state institutions have been sued over the one-teacher one laptop initiative.

According to the suit sighted by JoyNews, two unions, Trade Unions, Innovative Teachers, and All Teachers Alliance Ghana (ATAG), have jointly sued the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Attorney-General, and the Education Ministry over a move to award a contract on the initiative to the 1st Defendant, K.A Technologies Ghana Limited.

The plaintiffs are demanding that the sole-sourced contract awarded to K. A Technologies Ghana Limited, be annulled on grounds that it is contrary to sections 40 a, b, c, d, and e of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).

Also, "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.

Further, "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," among other claims.

The plaintiffs have also accused the government of creating K.A Technologies "only by virtue of the contract for distributing laptops under the initiative by the government, acting through the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Defendant."

They are therefore seeking "an order for Interlocutory Injunction restraining the defendants, their agents, successors. Assigns, servicemen, workmen and all persons claiming through them, from awarding or entering into a contract of selling or distributing laptops computers and/or in any way dealing with or interfering with any contract of selling or distributing laptop computers under the one teacher one laptop computer programme pending the final determination of this suit in terms of the accompanying affidavit.”

They are also demanding that any amount paid to the 1st Defendant by the government for manufacturing and distribution of laptops should be refunded.

Government, in collaboration with Teacher Unions, started the distribution of laptops to all teachers in public schools in September, across the country.

Launching the initiative dubbed, ‘One Teacher One Laptop’, Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia stated that the project is to help improve the quality of education.

He indicated that teachers will bear 30 per cent of the cost while government absorbs the remaining 70 per cent.

Stressing that the initiative is very important to the Akufo-Addo government, the Vice President noted that effective teaching and learning is critical to developing the human capacity for work, innovation, and creativity.