The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has accused the government of awarding the rehabilitation of Sunyani Airport and two cocoa road projects to Resource Access Limited a brother of NPP flagbearer, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, through sole sourcing.
The party argues that this contradicts the New Patriotic Party’s previous criticism of sole sourcing before coming to power in 2016.
At the “Moment of Truth” series at the NDC headquarters, the party’s (NPP) National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi claimed that the project costs have been inflated.
He stated that the Auditor General has found that the single-source cocoa road projects were overpriced and awarded in breach of public procurement law, resulting in huge financial losses for the nation.
Mr Gyamfi quoted the Auditor General’s performance audit report, which revealed that the Cocoa Board failed to analyse procurement options for value for money rigorously and instead sought approval for single sourcing and restricted tendering.
This resulted in contracts being procured at up to three times the cost of what could have been obtained through competitive tendering.
“The problem is that number one, all these projects being awarded to that company are being awarded to them through sole sourcing. Bear in mind what Bawumia said about sole sourcing in opposition. But what is even more worrying, for which reason we call this press conference, is that the projects they are awarding to Bawumia’s companies were not only awarded through sole sourcing but the projects are inflated and have occasioned the state huge financial losses. And I’m not the one saying it.”
“The auditor general has found that these single-source cocoa road projects were overpriced and awarded in breach of the public procurement law, thus causing the nation huge financial losses. Indeed, paragraph 65 of a performance audit report by the Auditor General on the construction of Cocoa Roads revealed that Coco Board, and I am quoting ‘the auditor General, Cocoa Board, did not rigorously analyse its procurement options for value for money, but sought approval from PPA for single sourcing and restricted tendering, thus procuring contracts which were up to three times more expensive than they could have obtained true competitive tendering’.
Explore the world of impactful news with CitiNewsroom on WhatsApp!
Click on the link to join the Citi Newsroom channel for curated, meaningful stories tailored just for YOU: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaCYzPRAYlUPudDDe53x
No spam, just the stories that truly matter! #StayInformed #CitiNewsroom #CNRDigital
