The Minority in Parliament has formally petitioned the Special Prosecutor, the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), and the Criminal Investigations Department to probe a contract awarded for the renovation of the old Bank of Ghana office.
According to the caucus, the contract awarded by the Ghana Gold Board to the Deputy Chief of Staff, Stan Dogbe, is fraught with irregularities and breaches of established procurement processes.
Addressing journalists on Tuesday, March 24, the Member of Parliament for Odotobri, Anthony Mmieh, insisted that the matter must be thoroughly investigated to ensure accountability.
“We presented petitions to these three agencies or organisations to conduct an immediate investigation into the contract that has been awarded to Stan Dogbe by the Gold Board. We are of the view that there were several irregularities; the laws governing the awarding of contracts were not followed.
“It is even likely that this contract would cause financial loss to the government. And so our petition simply says that this entire contract should be investigated for us to know what actually went on. And if there were any irregularities, the law should take its course. We expect the law to take its course.
“If the procurement was not properly done, you know what should be done. You cannot permit sole sourcing. If that has been done, then the entire contract would have to be abrogated. So at the end of the day, if it is established that the company that won the contract did not have the required documentation, if due process was not followed, then we expect that the contract would be terminated and the proper thing done,” he said.
He noted that all three investigative agencies have acknowledged receipt of the petition, urging them to hit the ground running.
“All three petitions have been accepted. They’ve been received, duly acknowledged, and we have copies of the acknowledgement. So we expect that the three agencies would do their work as required by law and let us know what the outcome of their investigations is.
“This is something that is very, very serious. We expect that they will hit the ground running as early as tomorrow. We expect that investigations will begin, and we also expect that they will come to a close before the end of the 14th day.
“The reason why I’m saying so is that there’s so much information out there in the public already. So it is not going to be difficult investigating this matter,” he stated.
