Mr. Yankah’s comments come weeks after the Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, indicated that the school  might soon be privatized if it fails to meet its obligations in a $64 million agreement it entered into with a private company, Africa Integras.

[contextly_sidebar id=”7uM21xNOjnmWeLDUxWwcc8BUFCO5DYpk”]“University of Ghana might be put up for sale because it entered into an agreement and the school is unable to abide by the terms and conditions of the contract. Under this contract, Legon is expected to pay 10 million dollars every year for 25 years. If Legon is unable to settle this loan, its assets will be seized,” the Minister had stated.

But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show, Professor Yankah said government will ensure the school remains a valuable state asset.

“It is our prime university, the number one university in the country – probably the number one in West Africa…Fortunately, there appears to be a resolution in the offing. Parties are talking as we speak now and there appears to a resolution in one form or the other. We will do anything possible to save the University. We will not just sit and allow the University to collapse.”

Prof. Aryeetey denies fraud claims in $64m UG deal

In 2017, this same agreement came up for discussion after the former Vice Chancellor of UG, Prof Aryeetey, was accused of failing to do due diligence when the deal was signed under his tenure.

He however rubbished these claims, explaining that UG had gone through all the right procedures before signing the agreement with the company.

Professor Aryeetey insisted the processes leading up to the signing of the agreement with Integras were transparent, with all relevant stakeholders being kept informed of all developments.

“There is no scandal at all in relation to the $64.4 million contract. Africa Integras signed an agreement that they were supposed to spend that money. As far as I know, by the time the project stopped, they had spent about $28 million. How does a phony company come and spend $28 million? You can see the buildings coming up and yet it has been written that I have signed an agreement with a phony company. We haven’t spent any money ourselves, it’s the ‘phony’ company that’s spending the money; how does a phony company put up buildings?,” Professor Aryeetey asked.

He also dismissed assertions that that he had received financial inducements to allow the project to proceed.

“I can assure the public that nothing untoward took place. The processes that were followed were very transparent. It’s being suggested that there was something corrupt, but there’s no such thing. I was never offered any money by any of the persons we dealt with. I have never asked for anything nor have I taken money from anybody in relation to this or any other project. Any suggestions of wrongdoing will be completely misplaced.”

The project was structured as a 25-year Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) contract.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post UG won’t collapse over supposed ‘bad contract’ – Prof. Yankah appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Earlier, the Director General of the Service, Dr Anthony Nsiah Asare raised concerns over some of the conclusions in the 2015 Auditor General’s report in a strongly worded letter.

[contextly_sidebar id=”tYHwUCG5NSA7Rd9guo3g1teOFdIY5Pht”]But after the committee probed further, he succumbed and agreed that it was wrong for the vehicles to have been sold to staff members, some for as low as 350 cedis without contacting the Auditor General.

“If you look at the paragraphs, what we were trying to do is to tell that the information was available which was not captured, but if the tone is harsh , I take it back and say we should have written it in another way or sentence so I am a bit sorry about that. I should have called the Auditor General to discuss this amicably.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Committee, James Klutse Avedzi, hailed the payment of 61,000 cedis from the Health Service.

“…We have been saying that many Ghanaians do not know that this is one of the success stories. We want to bring this to the attention of Ghanaians. The cars were auctioned as far back 2014, and the monies were paid by these auctioneers to the Ghana Health Service and they were keeping the money in their account and they were using the money so when we invited them to appear before the committee, they quickly mobilized the money and went and pay the money.”

Auctioning issues at MoFA

The Public Accounts Committee previously grilled officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) after an auctioneer to the ministry was said to have contravened auction laws by auctioning 24 vehicles to staff of the ministry at ridiculously low prices.

The auctioneer, Alex Adjei, side-stepped all the laws governing the proper disposal of government vehicles and disposed off the vehicles, mostly double-cabin pickups, to the staff of the ministry and pocketed GHc33,203 as his 7% commission on the sale of the vehicles.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post PAC slams Health Ministry for selling state cars cheaply to staff appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Wednesday grilled officials of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and an auctioneer to the ministry for contravening the auction laws and auctioning 24 vehicles to staff of the ministry at ridiculously low prices.

The auctioneer, Alex Adjei, side-stepped all the laws governing the proper disposal of government vehicles and disposed off the vehicles, mostly double-cabin pickups, to the staff of the ministry and pocketed GHc33,203 as his 7% commission on the sale of the vehicles.

[contextly_sidebar id=”tXkXSeQsmZQczg69SCuJjNnHk6Jjp7Rl”]Some of the vehicles were auctioned for GHc1,000 each.

A Nissan Patrol S/W with registration number GV 1285 U was auctioned for GHc4,000.

A Nissan double cabin pick-up with registration number GV 1481 U, was also sold at GH¢2,000, while a Mitsubishi double cabin pick-up went for GH¢1,000.

A Galaxy motorcycle was sold at GH¢30.00, while FY motorcycle was also sold at GH¢50.00.

According to the performance audit report of the Auditor-General on the disposal of the unserviceable government vehicles, the auctioneer has been engaged with an appointment letter by the disposing entity, specifying the terms of reference which include publication of the auction in a newspaper of wide circulation, the period within which the auction should be carried out, the account into which the auction proceeds are to be paid, and the period of which the proceeds are to be paid.

“The auctioneer is given the list of vehicles and the prices at which they are to be sold. The auctioneer inspects the vehicles and advertises in a newspaper of wide circulation to get the general public informed on the sale of vehicles. On the date and time published in the newspapers for the auction, the auctioneer goes through the list of vehicles to be auctioned and informs the prospective buyers present on the vehicles available for sale.

“The auctioneer selects the vehicles one after the other and asks for bids from prospective buyers present and the vehicle is sold to the highest bidder,” the Auditor-General had said in the report.

According to the Auditor-General, all these things were not followed and above all, the vehicles were exclusively sold to employees at the ministry, which is contrary to Section 1.8 of the Guidelines for Disposal of Goods and Equipment.

It states that “In the interest of promoting fair dealing and openness, Procurement Entities must not sell assets to staff unless arising from a public competitive process.”

The Director of Agriculture Engineering Services Department of the ministry, George Brantuo and Alex Adjei, who were directly or indirectly involved in the sale of the vehicles, apologized profusely to the committee for not following the laid-down procedure in disposing of the said vehicles.

The auctioneer, whose demeanor and constant giggles to serious questions even angered most committee members, said that when he started the auctioning process, the vehicles had already been allocated to the staff of MoFA as well as the prices at which they were to be sold to them.

The auctioneer was also faulted for not paying the monies realized from the sale of the vehicles into government chest in time, and also for not paying withholding tax on the commission he got from the auction.

According to the committee, the auctioneer sold some of the vehicles in July 2013, and kept the money for more than one year before paying it into government chest.

There was an instance when the money was kept with him for more than 20 months.

The ranking member of the committee, Kingsley Aboagye-Gyedu, suggested that since the auctioneer earned his commission without ‘working’ for it, he should be made to refund the money to the state while all the staff who bought the vehicles are made to pay interest on the money that should have been paid within a specified time to the government but reneged on it.

Mr Alex Adjei, however pleaded with the committee to have mercy on him and forgive him for the ‘mistake’ because he had learned his lesson and would not repeat such a mistake again in the discharge of his duties.

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Source: Daily Guide

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President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo over the week disclosed that government intends to spend GHc20 million on the celebration with support from the private sector.

[contextly_sidebar id=”61ZjfdjqvtFNk5FdJddLH2r2OFyBFQhD”]But speaking on Citi FM’s News analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Franklin Cudjoe said the amount realized from auctioning a few of the vehicles could help raise funds for the celebration.

There has been controversy over some missing vehicles allegedly taken by some officials of the previous John Mahama government.

Whereas the New Patriotic Party administration insists that over 200 vehicles from the presidency fleet were missing, spokespersons of the former government argue that they handed over 641 vehicles before exiting office.

Franklin Cudjoe noted that “I pray that we find the cars because we could easily sell some of them.”

“For instance the Toyota Land Cruiser, 142 of them, we could get about GHc10 million, Toyota Avalon, there are 33 of them, we could get GHc9 million, Toyota Corolla, 58 of them, you could probably get GHc17 million. Toyota Camry, 75 of them, you could probably make easily make 30 million. Toyota Prado, 54, you can easily make some GHc4 million and the list goes on and on.”

“If you look at the cost of the cars and the maintenance cost of these cars, you are getting into dizzying heights. So my issue is if you are looking for GHc20 million for Ghana at 60, fair and square, let’s find 142 Land Cruisers… and do a mass auction at the Independence Square. You don’t need 641 cars at the presidency,” he explained.

NDC staffers purchased 271 salon cars at the presidency

Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Samuel George, who was also on The Big Issue explained that about 271 of the vehicles allegedly missing vehicles from the President’s vehicle pool were purchasedby some officials of the former government.

According to Same George, although he declined to purchase the vehicle allocated to him while serving as a Presidential staffer under the former government, some of his colleagues bought theirs after the vehicles were duly properly valuated by the State Transport Company.

“A number of my colleagues chose to buy their cars. I for personal reasons declined to buy my car and I returned it to the director of logistics at the Office of President. We put out a list of 641 vehicles. We handed over about 370 vehicles to the assets and logistics committee [of the new government] and these vehicles were physically inspected by the assets committee led by lawyer Ayikoi Otu,” he added.

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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Sell gov’t cars for Ghana @60 celebration – Franklin Cudjoe appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

“Hi there. Idris Elba here. I’d like you to be my Valentine. That’s right love, just you and me, no one else around, just us,” he said in an online video.

The British star of west African origin is offering a fan and their guest a chance to share a meal with him at his undisclosed favourite restaurant.

“Once we’re feeling comfortable, we can order whatever your heart desires,” he says, quaffing champagne.

“Maybe some truffles, perhaps some steak. Pepper soup and fufu. That’s an African dish and you pound the yams. And you know what? I’ll let you pound my yams.

“And for dessert, you can have whatever you want, and I mean whatever you want.”

Bidding on the Omaze website ends on February 14, with the proceeds going to the W.E. Can Lead charity, which works to empower and educate girls throughout Africa.

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Source: AFP

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