Minority kicks against $90m loan for UESD Bunso campus
The Minority in Parliament has kicked against the approval of a 90 million dollar loan facility from the EXIM Bank of Korea for the establishment of the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) at Bunso in the Eastern Region.
Their opposition to the loan, they say, is due to government’s decision to breach the University Act by moving the university campus from its original site at Donkorkrom to Bunso.
Making his submission on the loan, Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson said government was perpetuating an illegality.
“Mr. Speaker the argument is that the University does not have a Council in place. We cannot allow the Minister for Education to disregard the act that governs the establishment of the University. We will not accept that. We the members of the Minority from this side disagree with this and we will not support this motion,” Mr. Forson said.
The construction of the University was part of the Mahama administration’s vision to ensure each region in the country had a public university.
However, the North Tongu MP,Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa had earlier alleged that the government had changed the original plan of a Donkorkrom campus to Kyebi, the hometown of President Akufo-Addo.
He further pointed out that government’s move is without recourse to Parliament, although the house originally approved the construction of two campuses for the school at Donkorkrom and Somanya.
Mr. Ablakwa reiterated in Parliament on Friday that the intended relocation contravenes Article 36 (2)d of the Constitution which states that “the state shall in particular take all necessary steps to establish a sound and healthy economy whose underlining principles shall include (d) undertaking even and balanced development of all regions and every part of each region of Ghana and in particular improving the conditions of life in the rural areas and generally redressing any imbalance in the development between the rural and the urban areas.”
Source: citinewsroom.com
