News:
August 7, 2024
The Minority National Democratic Congress (NDC) in Ghana’s parliament has called on President Akufo-Addo to immediately abrogate what it described as unconscionable, sweetheart, family affair US $34 million ambulance spare parts deal awarded to Service Ghana Auto Group Limited (SGAGL).
The caucus is convinced that the contract awarded to SGAGL, a company belonging to the daughter of President Akufo-Addo through sole sourcing was inflated.
Speaking on behalf of the minority caucus at a press conference in response to a statement issued by SGAGL in parliament, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa shredded the statement by the company which he said failed to address the fundamental issues raised by his expose’.
He noted particularly the deliberate silence of the statement on the politically exposed status of a key director of the company, Stephen Okoro who he said is “not just a close business partner of the President’s daughters, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo and Edwinna Akufo-Addo” but also has “family ties with the presidential family” as father to the president’s grandchild.
Mr Ablakwa who is the Chairman of Government’s Assurances Committee of parliament disclosed that the company is also linked to the president’s daughters through a longstanding business partnership.
“A key director of Service, Ghana Auto Group Limited, is named, Stephen Okoro. We have discovered through our parliamentary oversight, diligent parliamentary oversight, that Stephen Okoro is not just any Ghanaian or Nigerian for that matter. He is an in-law to President Akufo-Addo. Stephen Okoro has given President Akufo-Addo a grandchild.”
“This is a fact, and now in the corruption literature, politically exposed persons come under greater scrutiny. That is why when we were formulating the Office of Special Prosecutor Act, we included politically exposed persons.
The other thing that makes Stephen Okoro so politically exposed is that we have discovered that he is a longstanding business partner of the Akufo-Addo daughters.”, Mr Ablakwa revealed.
Flanked by minority members on the Health committee, Mr Ablakwa who is also Member of Parliament for North Tongu urged president Akufo-Addo to hold a presidential dinner with his family and announce a stoppage to the deal immediately.
He indicated that US $10 million out of the US $34 million has already been paid to the company by then Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta for no work done with an outstanding amount of US$ 24 million which must not been denied the nation.
“Then you need to also consider the fact that between 2020 and 2023, this company, Service Ghana Auto Group Limited, has been paid 115 million Ghana cedis in addition to the $54.3 million; then the latest scandal”.
“Ken Ofori Atta on the 9th of February 2024, a few days before he left office on the 14th of February, he instructed that this $34.9 million should be approved and that his ministry would take care of $10 million and the National Health Insurance Authority should take care of the outstanding $24.9 million”.
Additionally, the Minority also demands from President Akufo-Addo to instruct the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei Opare to desist from mounting pressure on Health and Finance Ministers to make unlawful payments to SGAGL.
The NDC caucus is also urging the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to expedite investigation and prosecution into the deal, saying “Ghana is bleeding”.
Below is the full statement by the Minority
Akufo-Addo’s Ambulance Scandal — My Response to Service Ghana Auto Group Limited’s
Statement
My attention has been drawn to a preposterous and most offensive statement from the discredited Service Ghana Auto Group Limited.
Even though none of the directors of Service Ghana Auto Group Limited could muster the courage to boldly put a name to their statement, I deem it necessary in the interest of public accountability to respond as follows:
1. I strongly condemn the use of threats by Service Ghana Auto Group Limited and their disgusting attempt to gag Ghanaians, particularly Members of Parliament and the media.
2. This ill-advised strategy to use naked threats to prevent parliamentary scrutiny, media discussions and the legitimate demand of accountability from patriotic Ghanaians who have every right to know what a colossal US$108million of our taxes are being used for under this opaque ambulance transaction is a strategy bound to fail. SGAGL is well advised to desist from issuing empty and pathetic threats as nothing will stop our democratic and patriotic resolve in the spirit of transparency, probity and media freedoms – which are all guaranteed under the
1992 Constitution, to demand full accountability in this matter. We cannot be intimidated by their bogus threats.
3. Service Ghana Auto Group Limited’s statement deliberately failed to respond to the politically exposed status of a key director, Stephen Okoro who is not only a close business partner of the President’s daughters, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo and Edwina Akufo-Addo as irrefutably demonstrated with official incorporation documents of SFO Initiatives Limited, Goodbox Limited and Good Grow Limited; SGAGL was also disingenuously silent on Stephen Okoro’s familial ties with the presidential family having fathered a grandchild of the President with the President’s daughter. Politically exposed persons always come under greater scrutiny in the fight against corruption as they can unduly influence procurement processes, abuse due process and orchestrate unconscionable payment terms in their favour, as we have seen in this transaction.
4. From the statement of Service Ghana Auto Group Limited, it purportedly participated in a competitive procurement process by the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives from 15th November, 2018 as a consortium of 7 companies. Instructively, this consortium could not have existed in 2018 and 2019 as unimpeachable records at the Registrar of Companies reveal that Service Ghana Auto Group Limited was incorporated much later, specifically on April 24, 2020.
5. Claims by SGAGL that it’s a consortium which leveraged the expertise and resources of its companies in procurement of ambulances is most laughable and ridiculous. Incorporation records show that at least 5 of the 7 companies were hurriedly incorporated between April and September 2017. None of the companies had any expertise or track record in procuring and servicing ambulances. The evidence speaks for itself: BEFT engineering was incorporated on April 20, 2017 primarily to carry out construction, renovation, civil engineering works and electrical engineering works; Elok Consult was incorporated on July 25, 2017 to carry out management consultancy, civil works, roads and building construction; Prestige Era Company Limited was incorporated on April 19, 2017 with its objects being to carry out general supply, road and building construction, oil and gas products dealer, transport and haulage. None of these companies had expertise in ambulance procurement and after-sales maintenance. This must explain why the Auditor-General exposed SGAGL for using staff of the National Ambulance Service for their maintenance contract.
6. Service Ghana Auto Group Limited peddled another blatant falsehood when it claimed that companies in its so-called consortium put in a bid at US$133,000 per ambulance.
7. Incontrovertible Payment Vouchers obtained from GIFMIS show that some of its companies were paid over US$145,000.00. Others were paid as low as US$77,034.46 and US$82,066.57 for the same specs of ambulances which confirms the reckless nature of how the cost of these ambulances was unconscionably inflated. The true and accurate payments for these ambulances per GIFMIS records are duly attached to this response.
8. The official payment vouchers obtained from GIFMIS also expose another blatant fabrication – the payments these 7 companies received were for 4X4 Mercedes Benz Sprinter 316 CDI Ambulance Vehicles and not a varied inferior 4X2 as claimed in SGAGL’s statement. Another case of financial loss to Ghana.
9. It is worth highlighting, that Ghana’s Auditor-General determined at page 24 of the Performance Audit Report on Fleet Management of the National Ambulance Service that the unit cost of the ambulance in issue is US$80,000.00
10. The discredited Service Ghana Auto Group Limited should therefore be explaining to Ghanaians what accounts for their cruel and unpatriotic inflationary pricing on the procurement of the ambulances by more than US$29million.
11. Service Ghana Auto Group Limited failed to disclose that in addition to the inflated payments on procurement of the ambulances, between 2020 and 2023 the Government of Ghana has paid them over GHS115million for servicing the ambulances, albeit under shady circumstances as firmly concluded by the Auditor-General without any challenge from the management of the National Ambulance Service.
12. SGAGL claims to have entered into an after-sales service and maintenance agreement in December 2019. On the contrary, the Ministry of Health in its public statement of July 25, 2024, states that this agreement was signed on September 10, 2020. Ghanaians are beginning to lose count of the litany of contradictions and fabrications.
13. In any case, SGAGL has only confirmed the Auditor-General’s query that SGAGL was awarded the service contract long before it was incorporated. SGAGL was incorporated on April 24, 2020 and yet it claims to have been awarded a service contract in December, 2019.
14. The claims by SGAGL that they were not contacted by the auditors cannot be credible as paragraphs 76, 82 and 83 of the Auditor-General’s Performance Audit confirms extensive field inspection and interaction with staff of SGAGL by the Auditor-General.
15. SGAGL’s purported compliance with Ghana’s procurement laws is not supported by the evidence as the Auditor-General discovers violations of PPA regulations as contained in paragraph 74 of the Performance Audit.
16. The confirmation by SGAGL that it refunded amounts as instructed by the Auditor-General can only serve as an admission of the damning findings made against SGAGL by the Auditor-General.
17. SGAGL’s attempt to justify the outrageously inflated and unconscionable US$34.9 million spare parts sweetheart deal by seeking to separate mechanical and medical spare parts is most infantile and an insult to our intelligence. With the ambulance in issue’s determined market value by the Auditor-General for a new fully-equipped ambulance being US$80,000 – how can its spare parts, be it mechanical or medical, be in excess of US$113,000?
18. The ex post facto rationalization by SGAGL to seek refuge in arrears as another justification for the unconscionable US$34.9million spare parts deal is most dubious. This is because none of Ken Ofori-Atta’s letters approving the request and his further instruction to the Controller and Accountant-General refers to arrears. Indeed the 23rd February, 2024 payment as captured by GIFMIS does not make reference to arrears. This afterthought of arrears is totally unmeritorious.
It is therefore not surprising that SGAGL was unable to state any specific amount it classifies as arrears.
19. Claims that the US$10million was not a direct payment to SGAGL is another palpable falsehood. All official communication signed by Ken Ofori-Atta including the instruction to the Controller for payment was carried out in the name of Service Ghana Auto Company Limited.
Published GIFMIS payment description also confirms this fact.
20. The lack of parliamentary approval (flagrant violation of Article 178 of the 1992 Constitution) for the US$34.9million unconscionable ambulance spare parts sweetheart deal which was duly confirmed by the Health Minister at the Assurance Committee public hearings on Thursday 1st
August, 2024, further amplifies the grave illegalities and impunity associated with this transaction. 21. I shall continue to cooperate with the Office of the Special Prosecutor and lead efforts in Parliament to scuttle this sleazy transaction in the supreme national interest.
22. We shall not rest until all the masterminds and politically exposed persons involved in this grand heist are prosecuted, and our public funds fully retrieved.
Demands:
1) President Akufo-Addo should immediately stop this US$34.9million scandalous, unconscionable, sweetheart, family affair ambulance spare parts deal.
2) President Akufo-Addo should instruct his Chief of Staff, Hon. Frema Opare, to desist from mounting pressure on the Ministers of Health and Finance to make unlawful payments to SGAGL.
3) We also urge the OSP to expedite investigations and prosecutions into this putrefying scandal.
For God and Country.
Ghana First
Kwaku Sakyi-Danso/Ghanamps.com