Stakeholders in the various Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) sponsored projects in schools in the Volta Region have called for the revision of the centralised system of awarding project contracts to engender proper stakeholder involvement and viability. According to them, contracts for projects in schools in the region are awarded in Accra by the Architectural and Engineering Services Limited (A.E.S.L. ) without any local involvement, thereby leading to the situation where stakeholders at the local level are kept in the dark and unable to make inputs into such projects. Some of the local stakeholders, including the district assemblies and heads of schools, have claimed that in the absence of their involvement, these projects are shoddily executed or abandoned for a long period of time. This came to light when the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education for three-days, inspected projects being undertaken under the purview of that committee in the Volta Region. It came to light that a number of projects which should have been completed about five years ago were still about 40 per cent complete, while others had been shoddily done due to lack of supervision. Institutions visited included the Mafi Kumase Senior High Technical School where a two-storey block under construction had been abandoned. At the Zion College in Anloga, a girls’ dormitory which started in 2003 is about 80 per cent complete. A teachers’ bungalow for the Akatsi College of Education which started in 2006 has not been completed. The worst of them was the Dzelukorpe E.P. Primary and Junior High School, where a two-storey building comprising an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre a library complex and a six-unit classroom block, which was started in March 2003 and expected to have been completed in July 2004, are still about 40 per cent complete. Members of the committee were however, not happy with the quality of work there and immediately called for the contractor to rectify the situation or risk losing the contract. At the Brotherhood Primary and Junior High School in Dzodze, the committee observed that the work had been abandoned at a very early stage and called on the contractor to return to work immediately or face being blacklisted for projects in the country. The Chairman of the committee, Mr Mathias Puozaa was of the view that in spite of the projects being awarded in Accra, the district assemblies did not have any excuse not to have any interest in them since they were the eventual beneficiaries. Further, the ranking member on the committee, Professor Dominic Fobih said the district assemblies had every reason to be inquisitive with regards to the timely execution of the project and the quality of work. The Member of Parliament for Ho West, Mr Emmanuel Bedzrah, said as much as there was the need to involve the local stakeholders in the execution of these contracts, a situation which according to him would be given consideration by the committee, it was imperative for those at the local level to take ownership of projects meant for their areas. The committee was however, not happy with the District Chief Executive for North Tongu, Mr Bubey Dzinadu, who was not present when the committee went to Mafi Kumase even though he had been duly informed of their mission. A member of the committee, Professor Samuel K. Amoako threatened that he would be summoned to Parliament to answer some pertinent questions, adding that Parliament was an august house that must be accorded the due respect. The Keta Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Sylvester Tornyeava, who was in Accra at the time the committee was on their way to Keta managed to rush down to Keta to meet the members. The Committee will also inspect projects in Ho and Hohoe before continuing to the Eastern Region. Source: Daily Graphic