Author: Akumaa GhanaMPs

Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bui Power Authority, Fred Oware on Monday told the Public Account Committee (PAC) of Parliament that the over 1million dollars vehicle purchase contract was awarded without recourse to the constitution of a tender committee.

Bui Power Authority admitted before the committee that it made a mistake when it purchased 40 Ford Ranger Double Pick-ups at the cost of $ 1,345,000 in 2013, without the approval of a Tender Committee.

The power generating authority accepted it breached the procurement law in its transaction. According to the acting CEO, it was after the deal that the Authority put in place measures for the tender board to be constituted.

In addition the power generating Authority was cited in the 2015 Auditor General’s report for various financial irregularities.

40 Ford vehicles from Mechanical Lloyd were purchased at a unit cost of $ 33,650 by Bui Power Authority in 2013.

An initial amount of $504,750 was paid on December 24, 2013 for 25 pick-ups. Subsequent payments were made but these were done without the approval of a tender committee.

Section 17 (1) of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) mandates state entities to establish their own Tender Committees to supervise their transactions.

But the purchase of the 40 Ford vehicles was done in breach of the law.

“I don’t think there will be any disagreement about a breach of the law to the extent that there wasn’t a Tender Committee” Mr. Fred Oware told the legislators.

He said subsequent to the formation of the Committee, all transactions made were done in accordance to the procurement law.

When asked about the state of the vehicles, Mr. Fred Oware said: “they are on the road working and we don’t have any problem with them.”

By: Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/ghanamps.com

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Weija Gbawe, Mrs Tina Naa Ayeeley Mensah has donated street bulbs to some selected communities to help reduce criminal activities that usually occur during late-night hours.

The legislator, who also doubles as deputy Minister of Health in the Akufo Addo- administration, in her presentation, charged stakeholders to swiftly install the bulbs to enable residents go about their normal activities with hindrance.

She added that others measure such as beefing up security personnel in the area will soon be employed to help curb the threat these criminals pose to residents whose work extend late into the night.

He charged stakeholders of the beneficiary communities to use the bulbs prudently to help benefit the greater number of people in the area.

Alice Abubakari/ghanamps.com

As part of measures to curb the annual occurrence of infractions cited against the Ministry of Education in the Auditor Generals report, the sector Minister and Member of Parliament for the Manhyia South,Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has disclosed that, meetings are being held with heads of education at all levels to help curb the occurrence of infractions against the Ministry.

He hinted that a meeting has already been held with all Regional Directors of education in that regard.

According to the Minister similar meetings will be held with District Directors of Education on finding the way forward in curbing infraction menace.

Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh revealed this when his outfit (Ministry of Education) appeared before the Public Accounts Committee to respond to queries raised by the 2015 Auditor General’s report against the Ministry.

The Minister was hopeful that the infractions would become a thing of the past subsequently.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, James Klutse Avedzi has stated that Government agencies who owe the state would be charged interest on the monies owed.

According to him, even if such debts have already been paid, interest would still be charged covering the period such monies were owed.

He noted that the move is to serve as deterrent to other offending public officers who take the country for granted.

The Ketu South lawmaker who is also the deputy Minority leader in Parliament believes that it is about time Public servants who misapply state funds are made to suffer the consequences of their actions.

His call came in the wake of several infractions raised in the Auditor General’s report against public office holders who misapplied state funds without due regards to basic financial management practices.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

The Minister for Works and Housing and Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South, Samuel Atta Kyea has revealed that the Ministry would not embark on any new housing project in the country until those started by previous governments are fully completed.

According to him, several affordable housing projects started during the era of former Presidents Kufuor and Mills/Mahama are still outstanding hence the needs to ensure their completion before new ones are streamed.

The Minister made this known when he appeared before the Public Accounts Committee OF Parliament to respond to queries raised against his outfit in the 2015 Auditor General’s report.

He also disclosed that in order to ensure value for money, the ministry itself will purchase building material for contractors working on the housing projects in the country.

This he said will avoid handling of physical cash to contractors which can be used for other purposes.

However, Military and National Security officials have taken custody of their complete houses constructed by former President Mahama.

By Christian Kpesese / ghanamps.com

The 26 month delay by the Bank of Ghana before crediting government’s accounts with some 3 million British Pounds budget support funding it received has met the wrath of the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

The honorable Member of Parliament for the Karaga constituency in the Northern region, Sualihu Dandaawa Alhassan, a Mmember of the Committee expressedshock at the Central Bank’s action.

According to the MP,the decision to delay the money does not augur well for Ghana’s efforts at reducingpoverty for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

This came to light when oficials of the Bank appeared before the public Accounts Committee to respond to queries raised against it in the 2015 Auditor General’s report.

It took 26 months forthe BoG credit GBP 3,691’430 out of GBP 6 millionit received on behalf of government meant for capacity building for poverty reduction strategy program in the country.

The MP has also urged government to attach much seriousness to issues concerning poverty reduction in the country.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com

Parliament has unanimously approved the 2017 work programme for the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC) to enable it undertake its planned activities.

GNPC is seeking to spend a total of GHs534.77million for the year,2017, a report on the Mines and Energy Committee of Parliament has revealed leaving a funding gap of GHs210.49m.

Officials informed the Committee that; “the funding gap will be financed by cash balance of US$68.03m brought forward from 2016 and US$95m GNPC’s cash collateral with Stanbic bank and Fidelity bank, when Litasco replaces GNPC’s Bank Guarantee under the 450MV Karpower Ship and a loan of US$47.39m.

GNPC’s operating expenditure also includes personnel emoluments, administrative capital, general expenses and maritime boundary special project.

An amount of US$324.28m is expected to be received by GNPC for the year, 2017 which consists of US$110.82m,US$172.90m and US$22.00m from the Jubilee,TEN and Sankofa Gye-Nyame Fields respectively.

Additional source of income would include US$4.13m as Training and Technology Grant and US$14.44m as miscellaneous sources from rentals, interest on short term investment and services to exploration.

One of the Corporation’s mainfocus is the Tema LNG project, which it plans to exercise the option of taking 20 percent equity in with an earmaked amount of US$21.25m.

The scope and scale of GNPC’s activities have been broadened with greater involvement in the gas/power sectors under its new Gas Aggregator role.

GNPC is therefore ensuring adequate capitalization of its midstream subsidiary,Ghana National Gas Company Ltd(GNGC) to effectively play the role of gas transportation from the onshore to the onshore.
As a result, an amount of US$10.00m has been earmarked to support GNGC in respect of capitalization.

On the financial performance of GNPC for 2016, the Corporation received an amount of US$88.50m for the year, which was made up of equity financing (share of development and production cost), 30percent share of net proceeds of Jubilee crude revenue and 30percent share of Jubilee Gas revenue.

The cash brought forward from the previous period(2015)was US$124.06m bringing the total cash available for 2016 to US$212.56m.

A Deputy Minister for Finance and Member of Parliament for Atiwa East in the Eastern region, Abena Osei-Asare has disclosed that over 3000 public sector works are yet to be registered unto the SSNIT biometric system.

She assured of government’s determination to clean the payroll system to avoid payments to ghost names whilesurging all stakeholders to assist.

“A little above 3,000 are yet to do the biometric as we are speaking now. We all want to help the system, so if there is anything we have to do to clean the system, so that at the end of the day, we have a solid payroll, we all have to do it, we all have to help each other to make this thing possible.”

According to her a little over 22,000 workers have been registered unto the biometric system and are now receiving their salaries.

The Deputy Minister said these when the Ministry of Finance appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.

On whether the process is still ongoing to have those unregistered (3,000 workers) back into the system, she explained that once they provide all their biometric details to SSNIT, automatically they would be reinstated unto the Controller and Accountant General(CAG) payroll system.

The Finance ministry has indicated that, government’s target for the reduction in wage spending is 35 per cent of revenue by 2017.

The payroll cleaning exercise forms part of efforts to block revenue leakages and make the most out of government’s revenue.

By Christian Kpesese/ ghanamps.com