Josiah
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 company linked to the brother of NPP flagbearer Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, through sole sourcing.
The NDC argues that this practice contradicts the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) previous criticism of sole sourcing before they came to power in 2016.
During the “Moment of Truth” series at the NDC headquarters, the party’s National Communications Officer, Sammy Gyamfi, claimed that the project costs have been inflated. He stated that the Auditor General found the single-source cocoa road projects were overpriced and awarded in violation of public procurement laws, resulting in significant financial losses for the nation.
Mr. Gyamfi cited the Auditor General’s performance audit report, which revealed that the Cocoa Board failed to rigorously analyze procurement options for value for money and instead sought approval for single sourcing and restricted tendering. This approach led to contracts being procured at up to three times the cost of what could have been obtained through competitive tendering.
“The issue is that all these projects awarded to that company were done through sole sourcing. Remember what Bawumia said about sole sourcing while in opposition. What is even more concerning, and the reason for this press conference, is that these projects awarded to Bawumia’s associated companies were not only sole-sourced but also inflated, causing significant financial losses to the state. And I’m not the one saying it.”
“The Auditor General found that these single-source cocoa road projects were overpriced and awarded in breach of the public procurement law, causing substantial financial losses to the nation. Paragraph 65 of the performance audit report by the Auditor General on the construction of Cocoa Roads revealed that the Cocoa Board did not rigorously analyze its procurement options for value for money but sought approval from the PPA for single sourcing and restricted tendering, resulting in contracts being up to three times more expensive than they could have been through competitive tendering.”
Source: Omanghana.com
