Three Ministers and the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) have been dragged to the high court over the decision by government to pick West Blue Limited to implement the National Single Window and Risk Management System at the ports.
A clearing agent in Tema, Michael Kweku Djan who filed the writ at the human rights division of the high court is also seeking an injunction to prevent government from going ahead to award the contract to West Blue pending the final determination of the case.
[contextly_sidebar id=”CStkw2FnggsOpUrm1JWsd0JT9XzEZ5iH”]The suit is premised on a May 12, 2015 letter from the chief of staff which directed the Minister of Finance, Seth Terkper to solely engage the West Blue consulting for the purposes of the single window implementation project.
It also asked the Minister to explore the possibilities of ensuring that the procurement processes were followed in awarding the estimated to be worth as much as $300 million over the next five years.
The writ argues that the “directive given by the President through his Chief of Staff” to the Minister of Finance to engage West Blue “is inconsistent and a flagrant breach” of the law “which lays down the conditions required to warrant a procurement entity to be engaged in a single-source procurement.”
The plaintiff, who works with Brema Shipping Company Limited wants the court to declare that “the single-sourcing of the National Single Window and Risk Management System Project in favour of West Blue Ghana Limited is a breach of Section 40 of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).”
Also, Kweku Djan makes the case that West Blue could not claim to have exclusive expertise in providing Single Window services because the five Destination Inspection Companies (DICs) currently operating in Ghana, whose contracts would not be renewed after August, had all shown over their years of operation in Ghana that they possess practical expertise.
The plaintiff is seeking for an interlocutory injunction to be placed on the deal pending the outcome of the substantive suit. Relying heavily on article 17, the plaintiff argues that “the right not to be subjected to discrimination as guaranteed under article 17of the 1992 would be abused if the injunction is not granted”
The injunction application would be moved on Thursday, July 16, 2015 to enable plaintiff to push for the enforcement of his fundamental human rights in order to be allowed to participate in the bidding process if it’s open for competitive bidding.
Mr Kweku Djan says allowing West Blue the sole right to operate the Single Window project infringes on his fundamental human rights.
By: Raymond Acquah/citifmonline.com/Ghana