[ 2017-02-01 ]

Former vice president Amissah-Arthur

$13.9m saga: 'Alarmed' Amissah-Arthur stopped payment – Apaak
Ex-Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur was
"alarmed" and questioned "overpayments" made in
connection with the construction of the Vice
President’s official residence and had all
payments stopped until the anomaly had been
resolved, former presidential staffer Dr Clement
Apaak has said.

Reacting to Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia's
recent revelation that the Mahama administration
spent $13.9million on the project, which is yet to
be completed, the Builsa South MP said on
Wednesday that: "The point to make is that it is
truly by virtue of the fact that the then-Vice
President also becoming aware of what it was going
to cost, caused him to say that no more money is
going to be paid before the completion of the said
building, but to suggest that we have spent
$13.9million, which is what is dominant in the
public domain, is simply not right. Perhaps the
current Vice President may not have chosen his
words properly."

Dr Apaak said as far as he was aware, $5.9million
rather than $13.9million was the amount allocated
for the project. He told Nii Arday Clegg on
Accra-based Starr FM's morning show on 1 February
that Dr Bawumia had created a false impression
that the Mahama administration paid all
$13.9million for the project.

"Let me emphasise that it was even the then-Vice
President who briefed the current Vice President
on this issue, who made him aware of the fact that
he [Amissah-Arthur] became alarmed about the
overpayments, so much so that he queried the
development and ordered that no more payment be
made until the issue was resolved between the
contractor and AESL, so, I think that the current
Vice President needs to provide further and better
particulars and those further and better
particulars can be obtained from AESL," he said.

Speaking at a Good Corporate Governance Initiative
event at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra on Tuesday,
31 January, Dr Bawumia said he was "shocked" when
he was told of the price for the house, which, in
his view, was "most likely sole-sourced".

He, thus, said it was important to enforce the
Public Procurement Act "strictly" so as to avoid
such blatant abuse of the Public Procurement Act
to safeguard the taxpayers' purse.

"Very importantly, we want to ensure the strict
enforcement of the Public Procurement Act, Act
663; it is an Act that in my opinion and in the
opinion of many, has really been abused recently,
the resort to sole-sourcing of contracts has been
more the rule rather than the exception,” Dr
Bawumia said.

"The way the Act was designed, sole-sourcing was
not supposed to be as rampant as we are seeing it
today and I think that we will have to enforce
this Public Procurement Act.

"I'll give you one example which I found out
recently: there was this brouhaha about the vice
president's residence, I'm sure you heard about
that, so in the context of discussing this issue,
there's supposed to be a vice president's
residence under construction, official, so to
speak, so, I asked the question: why is this
project being delayed, why hasn't it been
finished? And they said: 'Well, the contractor is
owed a lot of money.' I said: 'Well how much is
this money?' And then I'm told it is actually a
lot of money. How much is this house actually
costing? And I was shocked when I was told. Can
you believe in Ghana we are building a house to
house our vice president and this house is
supposed to cost $13.9million? I mean what sort of
house is this supposed to be? I mean, is the gate
made of gold, the pavement of gold, the blocks of
gold? [A] house in Ghana for 13.9 million dollars?
I couldn’t believe it. How many boreholes
couldn't we have done [with such an amount?]. Of
course I'm 100 per cent sure it didn't go through
competitive tender otherwise we would have known
about it. It was most likely sole-sourced and
there it stands uncompleted, but this is just an
example of many contracts that we don't have value
for money for …"

According to him, if Ghana is to achieve
accelerated growth and development through
transparency and integrity as the theme for the
event suggests, then such practices must be got
rid of in the country's governance.

Dr Bawumia noted that the theme coincides with
President Nana Akufo-Addo's vision to build a new
Ghana founded on the pledge of value for money and
economic opportunity for all irrespective of their
background. "A new Ghana in which hard work pays
and cutting corners does not," he added.

"We cannot achieve this vision unless we promote
good governance, accountability and transparency,"
he said, adding that "leadership plays an
important role in good governance".

In line with this, Dr Bawumia said the Akufo-Addo
government intends making corruption a felony
rather than a misdemeanour while seeking to
quickly have parliament pass the Right To
Information Bill so as to enhance transparency.

"We are going to have to push parliament to make
the necessary amendments and if I had my way, it
should be passed within these first 100 days of
this government," the Vice President said, adding:
"It brings transparency in our governance."

Source - classfmonline.com

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