<<Print>>

The Minister of Education, Lee Ocran, has defended his deputy, Mahama Ayariga, in the $44 million contract awarded to five companies to publish Atlas for Junior High Schools in Ghana. Speaking in an interview with Citi News, the former Ghana ambassador to South Africa said, �Ayariga has nothing to do with the printing of Atlas, he has absolutely nothing to do with that.� According to Hon. Ocran, the printing of the Atlas and other books �is a ministry policy and we are going to pursue that together with other books in Core Science, Mathematics and English. We�re having meetings with the development partners to find money to print those books.� The five publishing companies - Approachers Ghana Ltd, EPP Books Services, Winmat Publishers Ltd, Adwinsa Publishers and Sedco Publishing Ltd - have been awarded contracts to print Atlas for government schools. Hon. Ayariga has been in the media recently over his alleged involvement in a contract worth $44 million to be paid by the Ghana Education Trust Fund - Getfund. There have been varied concerns raised about the amount of money involved. Mr. Ocran jumped to the defense of his deputy, intimating that �those who think that they can repair their political fortunes by looking for scandals are looking at the wrong place.�