Following the incarceration of the former National Coordinator of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Programme (GYEEDA), Abuga Pele, the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga is calling for the scrapping of sole sourcing as a way to address the rising spate of corruption in Ghana.
Abuga Pele, the former National Coordinator of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA), was sentenced alongside the Chief Executive Officer of Goodwill International Group, Philip Assibit, to a combined jail-term of 18 years on various counts, including willfully causing financial loss to the state.
[contextly_sidebar id=”q3ZiiK8QdvQcAWXG72W3mIHsssiJPQPm”]In the scandal that hit the now Youth Employment Agency (YEA), some companies including Zoomlion Ghana Limited, RLG, Asongtaba Cottage Industry Limited and Better Ghana Management Services Limited, among others were contracted to render services under various modules for the GYEEDA programme.
It subsequently emerged that monies were paid to these companies who were awarded the contracts through sole sourcing for no work done.
Speaking on Citi FM’s News Analysis Programme, The Big Issue, Mr. Ayariga said the awarding of all contracts through competitive bidding processes will tackle the canker associated with sole sourcing.
“President Akufo Addo is against sole sourcing. He campaigned against sole sourcing but reducing sole sourcing is not enough. I think we should abolish it entirely,” he indicated.
Ayariga threatens suit
Mr. Ayariga, on the show, also indicated that he will next week start a chain of events that may result in an injunction at the Supreme Court against the operations of a number of state agencies.
Mr. Ayariga has said he will move against every state agency exercising “unfettered discretionary power without clear non-discriminatory non-arbitrary regulations approved by Parliament governing the exercises of their discretionary power.”
He asserted that all these agencies must provide a road map to close all these loopholes or face being dragged to the Supreme Court.
“I shall in the coming week write to each and every agency of government concerned and demand that the regulations be brought to Parliament within 30 days otherwise I will proceed to the Supreme Court to seek an injunction against all that they are doing in violates of the law.”
‘Jail-term’
Abuga Pele was handed a four and six-year sentence which will run concurrently, meaning he will spend six years behind bars.
Assibit, on the other hand, got sentences of 12 and four years on different counts, also to run concurrently, meaning he will be in jail for twelve years.
The court also ordered the state to recover all assets and money belonging to the state from the convicts.
Delivering her judgment, Justice Efia Serwaa Botwe said the prosecution succeeded in proving their case by producing enough evidence.
She also added that the defence and the accused person, on whom a lot burden of proof was laid, failed to prove their innocence in the matter.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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