He has thus denied the report by the Daily Graphic which was published by citifmonline.com, on September 22, 2017, suggesting that the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), has begun investigations into the matter, following the interdiction of David Boison, who is said to have been implicated in an investigative report conducted by the authority from April to August 2017.

According to him, he’s unaware of an investigation by any state institution, because he has not committed any crime to warrant that probe.

He however said he will readily avail himself to be probed to prove his innocence of need be.

“…That the publication is a package of inaccuracies and falsehoods about him and that claims about his alleged involvement in procurement are pure fabrication and that said publication ought to be disregarded in its entirety as far as the allegations are about his alleged act of wrongdoing” part of the rejoinder read.

Below is the full Rejoinder as sent to the Daily Graphic and copied to citifmonline.com.

REJOINDER: RE: EOCO INVESTIGATES IT MANAGER OF GPHA FOR ALLEGEDLY INFLATING PROJECT COST

We are instructed by David King Boison, IT Manager of the GPHA, to file and request publication of this brief but important rejoinder to your publication (print and online) of 22nd September 2017 under the above-mentioned heading.

This resort to a constitutional right to a rejoinder over your said publication is intended to afford him fair opportunity to state his side of the facts for the records, and it is hoped it will receive same prominence (print and online) as said publication.

Our client informs us, and wishes you and your esteemed readers to know and be guided by the following:

1) That the publication is a package of inaccuracies and falsehoods about him and that claims about his alleged involvement in procurement are pure fabrication and that said publication ought to be disregarded in its entirety as far as the allegations are about his alleged act of wrongdoing.
2) That he is unaware of any probe whatsoever by any investigative institution of State though such has become necessary and that he would give his fullest co-operation to any investigations because same will only affirm paragraph (1) above.
3) That he has since his elevation to that office in March 2015, executed his assigned duties and responsibilities conscientiously earning him two prestigious national and international awards in his field of expertise, and that these have not only significantly enhanced the image of the GPHA, but also the technology university where he teaches Supply Chain and IT related programs. He, as PhD candidate recently won an award in the category of World Review of Business Research as Best Paper at the 8th Global Business Research Conference in Italy for a paper on Berth Optimization.
4) That the thrust and gravamen of said publication being the allegation attributed to a five-member committee of the GPHA that he, David King Boison, overpriced IT solutions contracts and received unlawful benefits as a result can only be laughable as his assigned responsibilities as IT Manager do not even remotely extend to pricing of any procurement or payment for same.

5) That as IT Manager he does not belong to the GPHA procurement department which by law has the mandate and is responsible for each of the procurements referred to in said publication, and it is unthinkable how such an officer can be said to have overpriced or been involved in overpricing and by extension paying/authorizing/advising payment of said procurements.

6) That it is a proven fact that the email message referred to in said publication as the single paramount evidence of his alleged involvement is a product of hacking (the institution has been fighting hacking for a while now) traced to a named IP address, and that neither he nor the alleged intended recipients of the said email ever received same.

7) That as earlier stated, he believes in due process and is standing ready to prove his innocence and assert his rights in a lawful forum in due course.
We expect your kind co-operation in compliance with our client’s constitutional right to a rejoinder.
–
By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This follows the interdiction of the GPHA’s IT Manager, Mr. David Boison, who is said to have been implicated in an investigative report conducted by the authority from April to August 2017.

The interdiction letter, signed by the acting Director-General of the authority, Paul Asare Ansah, cited Mr. Boison for engaging in unethical conduct by negotiating project costs upwards.

Mr. Boison is also said to have certified projects as completed when some of them were actually at their initial stages or were never executed.

Part of the letter read: “We refer to the committee that investigated the procurement and the usage of IT-related projects and programmes report and wish to inform you that prima facie evidence has been established against you. You are therefore interdicted, effective August 14, 2017, for further investigations into the various allegations that have come up.”

Value for money

Mr Boison is alleged to have supervised the procurement of inventors, stabilisers and batteries for an integrated IT project for the authority, costing $736,666.26.

Out of the amount, 80 per cent was paid, while the suppliers presented invoices to claim the outstanding 20 per cent, when the items were never supplied and installed.

He is also said to have some questions to answer in respect of the procurement of 36 power stabilisers and batteries as part of a $275,648.29 contract awarded to Arrow Network Systems but the items were never supplied and installed, although some payments were made by the GPHA.

Mr Boison is also alleged to have inflated by $30,000 the cost of a terminal operating system (TOS) contract awarded to ZConic IT Solutions for the procurement of a Dynamix AX 2012 system which has never been utilised since it was purchased.

An e-mail correspondence from Mr Boison to the vendor, dated July 8, 2016, read: “Dear Boss, Pls let’s work around 170K and 30,000 for those we need to satisfy in the chain. That amount excludes withholding tax. So we should be looking at 200K, excluding VAT, to compute the total, Regards.”

According to the GPHA’s internal investigative committee report, the TOS, supported by hand-held devices which were to be used for the paperless port project, in line with a port automation drive embarked on by the authority under the immediate past Director-General, Mr Richard Anamoo, was previously approved by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) at a cost of $622,094 and was to be supplied by Aeon Ventures in November 2016.

The device, it said, was, however, procured at $201,720 from a South African firm, Junzo Investments, in August 2017, following the cancellation of the previous contract with Aeon, an indication that the contract sum was overpriced by $420,374.

Other purchases

The investigative report also highlighted the supply of IT accessories to the International Maritime Hospital (IMAH), a subsidiary of the GPHA, by Online Computer Solutions to the tune of $346,841.91, for which the contract sum for the supply and installation had been paid.

According to the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Mr Charles Sackey, although the installation was to be done by the vendor, the committee, during its fact-finding mission, found that employees of the IT Department of the GPHA were engaged in the installation.

He said a Fortigate Firewall which was earlier acquired for the Takoradi Port at a cost of $83,000 was allegedly overpriced by Mr Boison by $42,815, raising the figure significantly to $125,815.

He said a real estate management which the authority did not need was also procured for $124,854 from Dynamics Netsoft Technology.

“An enterprise asset management which was also procured for $124,854 from Hofinsoft Technology of India and was never used has since expired, since the authority had no use for it,” Mr Sackey said.

The report maintained that the investigations revealed many malpractices that went into the procurement process through the use of single source procurement methods.

“Staff did not assert themselves in the various roles assigned them. Others took advantage of the weak control environment and refused to make broader consultations in the preparation of project requirements, leading to most of the contracts being irrelevant,” it suggested.

Director-General

Mr Ansah, who confirmed Mr Boison’s interdiction to the Daily Graphic, indicated that the committee’s report had been referred to EOCO for further action.

According to him, Mr Boison could not convince the committee concerning many of the projects he undertook when he appeared before the five-member panel.

“As a manager, he failed to apply the necessary due diligence in the performance of his duty, a situation that further weakened the procurement chain. As the lead negotiator and executor of various IT-related projects, he should have provided expert advice for management on the utilisation of the purchases,” Mr Ansah said.

–

Source: Graphic Online

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Under the system, Faculties and Departments would be merged to form four colleges, to facilitate the achievement of the vision of attaining a World Class university status.

Prof Aryeetey announced this in a speech read on his behalf at the launch and inception workshop of the Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation (DECCMA) project.

He said the University had undergone changes since its establishment about 65 years ago to become a top notch institution.

DECCMA from the Deltas are economic and environmental hotspots and often support high population densities estimated at over 500 million people globally, with particular concentration in South, South East and East Asia and Africa.

The just under five-year DECCMA project will examine how people are adapting to the physical effects of climate change, such as sea level rise, alongside socio-economic pressures, including land degradation and population pressure, in delta regions.

The project aims to develop methods to predict how these four deltas may evolve in the next 50 to 100 years and provide government with the knowledge and tools to ensure future policy can maximize planning services and programmes to the benefit of the region’s population.

The Vice Chancellor said UG has identified Climate Change as one of its four Research Clusters and has constituted the Trans-Disciplinary Research Group on Climate Change with focus on four key areas, namely: climate Change and Health, Climate Change and Water Resources, Climate Change and Society, and Climate Change Innovation with emphasis on Green Economy.

The university has provided the group a seed fund of One Million Ghana Cedis for the next academic year, and the activities of the research group are expected to complement ongoing Climate Change initiatives at various units in the University of Ghana, he said.

“The $1.1M DECCMA project is therefore very timely. It will add up to the various cutting edge climate change research activities in the University,” he said and added that the project, which is looking at migration as an adaptation option for the Volta delta and other deltas in Africa and Asia, will provide information for effective management of resources in the deltaic regions.

He said in addition to providing policy direction to the three doctoral researches in the Departments of Economics, Marine and Fisheries Science and the Regional Institute for Population Studies (RIPS) in the University of Ghana, The DECCMA project will also facilitate collaboration between the University of Ghana and other institutions in Africa, Asia and Europe.

Source: GNA

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