Domelevo Slams Mahama Over MPs’ GETFund Allocations

A storm is brewing over the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) following shocking revelations that Parliament has approved almost GHC400,000 per Member of Parliament (MP) annually, under the guise of funding and monitoring educational projects.

But former Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo isn’t having any of it.

He has boldly accused the government of “looting in disguise” and questioned President Mahama’s role in the controversial move.

In a strongly worded Facebook post, Daniel Domelevo wrote: “Shocking! Is it true that individual Members of Parliament have been allocated funds to monitor GETFund projects? What happens to the monitoring units of GETFund, district assemblies, Ministry of Education, etc, responsible for that? We must prevent fruitless and wasteful spending – it is looting in disguise.”

The allocation includes GHC250,000 for project execution and an additional GHC150,000 for “monitoring” purposes.

However, critics believe this is only the tip of the iceberg.
According to insider reports, the Mahama administration plans to disburse this amount to each MP every six months, meaning GHC800,000 annually per MP. Over a four-year term, this amounts to GHC3.2 million per parliamentarian — a staggering sum from the national purse.

Insiders allege that this cash flow is not just about constituency development.

One critic pointed out: “The John Dramani Mahama administration, realizing that there are more NDC MPs who cannot be ministers and board members, has decided to give them these monies to support them… President Mahama is gifting the NDC MPs, largely, these monies to compensate them.”

The critic further argued that NPP MPs had to be included in the arrangement to mask the favouritism and avoid political backlash.

“The taxpayer is being burdened by Mahama just because he must satisfy the many ‘redundant’ MPs from his NDC party,” the source added. “Is this the reset we were promised?”

On the floor of Parliament, Minority Chief Whip and MP for Nsawam-Adoagyiri, Frank Annoh-Dompreh defended the allocation, revealing that lawmakers lobbied for the increase.

“At the deliberations, we also suggested to the minister [finance] that there should be some re-alignment,” he said.

“Following the pressures that MPs often come under… there should be some upward adjustments… and the finance minister complied and acceded to our requests,” he noted.

The Member of Parliament for Binduri, Issifu Mahmoud, also justified the funds, though he described the amount as inadequate.

“This so-called GHC150,000 that is meant for us to do monitoring or whatever is woefully inadequate,” he told Citi TV.

“Some senior MPs even spend far more than that in a week, in a month as far as the needs of their constituency are concerned. They pay school fees, they assist people in all sectors of life in their constituencies.”

But Domelevo isn’t convinced by any of these explanations. As Ghana’s former Auditor-General, he has long campaigned against what he sees as systemic misuse of public funds.

To him, the allocation is not just unnecessary but a duplication of effort, given that GETFund already has dedicated monitoring structures.

The controversy continues to grow as civil society groups, political observers, and taxpayers question the ethics behind the allocations.

However, if the allegations of political compensation are true, Mahama’s “reset” agenda may soon be overshadowed by what critics are beginning to call “reset corruption.”

-BY Issah Olegor

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