Ras Mubabrak, Member of Parliament (MP) for Kumbungu, has accused Education Minister Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh of blowing GHS1.3 million of state funds on what in his view was a needless programme outside Ghana.

According to Mr Mubarak, the amount could have been used for something beneficial in the country but was rather spent on a needless education programme at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Speaking to journalists after parliament’s sitting on Thursday, 1 March 2018, Mr Mubarak indicated that the amount for the entire duration of the programme as explained by Dr Prempeh did not meet value-for-money standards “because GIMPA (Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration) organises similar programmes in leadership and governance here in Accra and instead [the minister is] spending more to register 13 people to go to the United States of America for three days”.

He said the expenditure is “outrageous and scandalous” because to him, the National Service Scheme (NSS) is struggling to pay allowances of national service persons, yet “NSS can come up with $300,000 for a three-day programme in the United States of America. You tell me whether or not if this is a sensible way of spending your hard-earned taxpayers’ money”.