Ghana’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Ireland, Sabah Zita Benson, says the state funded premium visas, flights and other expenses for the spouses and children of some scholarship beneficiaries travelling to the UK under the previous Akufo-Addo administration.
Speaking on TV3’s Ghana Tonight on Wednesday, 12 August, Ms Benson said she had examined documents relating to three or four cases involving scholarship recipients who travelled with their families to study courses including a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Public Policy.
She questioned why public funds were used to send people abroad to study programmes that are available at universities in Ghana.
“It is not just somebody. I have about three files or maybe four of such people who were brought in, a whole family. It could be the husband or wife gets scholarship to come and study and they are studying things like MBA or Policy that we are teaching in our universities.
“So a man or woman gets award to come and study MBA or Policy with free tuition and stipend and then the awardee comes along with the whole family,” she stated.
According to Ms Benson, some recipients travelled with as many as four or five children and a spouse. She said the Ghana Scholarship Authority (GSA) paid for the associated travel and administrative costs for each accompanying family member.
“Some of these families were as many as four children plus a spouse, five children plus a spouse, three children plus a spouse,” she said.
She added that records reviewed by her office included payment documents showing that travel agents were paid to arrange the journeys, including buying air tickets and providing other travel-related services.
“I can tell you for a fact. My eyes have seen the documents and the payments, I know the travel agents that was collecting these payments to buy tickets for them. It is just that I don’t want to put their name out there.
“We paid for whole families to move in with their parents and their spouses to come and study Master’s Degree. It is insane,” she bemoaned.
The High Commissioner said the payments covered more than tuition and stipends. She alleged that the government also paid premium visa charges, air fares, yellow fever cards and vaccinations for the relatives accompanying the scholarship awardees.
She further claimed that £8,160 was paid for each family member who travelled with a scholarship beneficiary to the UK.
“They were not using ordinary visa and I can tell you for a fact that the UK Embassy charges 500 pounds for premium visas.
“So, we were paying for premium visas for these awardees and their families, we were paying for air tickets for all of them, and then we were paying for yellow fever card, vaccination and then we were paying 8160 pounds each to every family member that accompanied the awardee for coming to study one course that can be studied in Ghana,” Zita Benson noted.
Ms Benson called for the recovery of public funds from beneficiaries who, she alleged, did not complete or undertake the studies for which the scholarships had been awarded.
“Government should make them refund. They didn’t come and study, they didn’t get any scholarship, so government should make them refund everything including visa fees,” she said.
She also urged the authorities to investigate the circumstances surrounding the payments. Those found responsible, she said, should face prosecution for allegedly causing financial loss to the state.
Ms Benson linked the spending to Ghana’s outstanding financial obligations to UK universities. She said the expenditure had added to the country’s existing debt of about £35m owed to universities in the United Kingdom.
