Former Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo, has denounced the Ghana Scholarship Secretariat for what he perceives as a lack of transparent guidelines in selecting deserving scholarship recipients.

Mr Domelevo highlighted cases where scholarships intended for financially disadvantaged students were instead granted to politically influential individuals and their relatives.

Following an investigation by The Fourth Estate, it was disclosed that scholarships meant for underprivileged students were awarded to individuals such as Gifty Oware-Mensah (formerly Oware-Aboagye), who received a government scholarship of GBP18,450 to pursue an MSc in Development Policy and Politics at the University of Birmingham in 2020.

This occurred despite her tenure as Deputy Executive Director at the National Service Secretariat. Additionally, in the same year, she acquired Berry Ladies FC, a female football club in Ghana's women's premier league.

During an appearance on JoyNews on April 8, 2024, Domelevo stressed the importance of exercising prudent judgment in public office and adhering to established guidelines to ensure fairness and impartiality in the distribution process.

"In our audit report, one of our concerns was that according to the law, the monies should be given to the Scholarship Secretariat for them to administer, but then GETFund was administering it themselves.

"I am told that has changed, so the money has been given to the Scholarship Secretariat, who, from my point of view, is administering scholarships 24/7.

"But if this is how they are administering scholarships, then they are a complete waste. It is better if we scrap it. Not just waste; they are useless.

"I wish I had a harsher word for them because 24/7 that is what they do, and they have not been able to come up with any guidelines to determine who qualifies for this to ensure they are within the remit of the law," he stated.