Prof Gyampo wades into government appointees benefiting from scholarships

• Posted on February 24, 2020February 24, 2020
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

senior political science lecturer at the University of Ghana, Professor Ransford Gyampo, has shared his thoughts some ministers in the Akufo-Addo government and other government appointees who have been listed as beneficiaries of GETFund scholarships, which are meant for needy but brilliant students.

Read his post on his Facebook page

Purely from the taxonomy of Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy as “Government for the People”, I dare say that, it is inappropriate for officials who, because of the critical and important positions they occupy in Government, are well-catered for by the state, to use their power and influence to “jump the queue” to benefit from interventions meant for the “Poor People”

CMB Scholarships for instance, meant for children of poor cocoa farmers, must be enjoyed by its intended beneficiaries, and not the children of rich government appointees.  

Interventions meant for the poor and needy, must be truly ring-fenced for the poor and needy. The criteria for selecting beneficiaries must satisfy Max Weber’s prescriptions of “rational-formalistic-impersonality”

It must however be noted that, there may be nothing wrong, if the state, through its agencies, decide to sponsor an official to undertake a course or programme, aimed at not satisfying the personal self aggrandizement of the individual public official, but improving the capacity of the official to serve the people better. 

In this regard, every fair comment about the officials who have benefitted from funding to undertake courses abroad, must first ascertain what the courses studied were meant for. Were they courses merely meant to improve personal CVs? Were they courses meant to enrich the quality of services rendered by the officials to the poor?  We risk being propagandistic if we do not objectively answer these questions.

Yaw Gyampo
A31, Prabiw 
PAV Ansah Street
Saltpond