The Education Ministry has sent a final notice to an information technology company, TANIT Ltd, demanding a refund of an amount of GH₵859,115.46.

According to the Ministry, the demand for the refund was due to the company's failure to execute the development and operation of a digital teacher training content and platform within the specified duration.

In a letter dated August 18, 2022, the Ministry indicated that it will advise itself if TANIT Ltd fails to comply with the final demand notice.

The Ministry made reference to letters dated June 22, 2022, June 24, 2022, and July 18, 2022, all in relation to the contract agreement signed on July 26, 2021.

In the letter dated 22nd June 2022, the Ministry requested the IT Company to refund all payments made to it for failing to meet the tenets of the contract signed between the two parties on 26th July, 2021.

In another letter dated 18th July 2022, the Ministry reminded the company to refund all payments as they did not perform their obligation under the contract agreement, which was supposed to be completed within five months.

Terms of contract

The Education Ministry in the contract expected TANIT Ltd to have performed each of the five deliverables and submit a claim respectively for work done at each stage and report for verification before moving to the next stage.

Here are the five deliverables spelt out in the contract by the Ministry to TANIT Ltd:

1. Submission of inception report by August 2021 attracting payment of 15 per cent of the contract sum which was met by TANIT Ltd.
2. Design, construct and build a platform for the training of teachers online by September, 2021 attracting payment of 25 per cent.
3. Develop and build curriculum design by October 2021 also attracting 20 per cent payment.
4. Operationalise a dashboard, platform sign off and go live by November 2021 which also attracted payment of 20 per cent.
5. Consultant to be required to stay on board for additional two months (December 2021 to January 2022) after the project goes live for quality assurance which attracted the remaining 20 per cent.

The bone of contention is the fact that TANIT Ltd did not submit monthly reports for the remaining four deliverables but rather lumped the four reports together and requested the payment of the remaining 85% contract sum.

In addition, TANIT Ltd also failed to complete the project within the five-month period as prescribed by the contract.

Background

It must be noted that TANIT Ltd submitted a lumped payment claim of the remaining 85% on 14th February 2022 meanwhile, the contract which was signed on 26th July 2021 was supposed to be completed by January 2022.

The Education Ministry put on record that TANIT Ltd's contract was not terminated as is being speculated but it rather expired. This, they stated, forced the Education Ministry to seek support from another source for the successful execution of the project.

The Education Ministry, therefore, informed the general public of its commitment to making good use of resources it received from the government for the provision of quality education to all Ghanaians irrespective of location.

Again, the Ministry did not cook up figures but gave actual training figures to merit the payment of the project fund from the World Bank.