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.

–

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.

In an interview with Citi News’ Umaru Sanda Amadu, the Odododiodoo legislator said the situation has left his wife, who is currently the only occupant of the house distraught.

[contextly_sidebar id=”uFu3zbQjwUiWFjtMccto4FR9HH9iepkj”]While expressing shock over the development, Nii Lante Vandepuye denied being in possession of a state vehicle.

According to him, the only vehicles currently in the house, were ones he purchased from a public auction some four years ago and another; which is an official vehicle he used while serving as minister in the former government, but bought it before he left office.

He said he has documents to prove his ownership of the vehicles.

“I’m not in Ghana now. I’m in the UK for a short holiday. I just had a call from my wife that four vehicles are parked in front of the house and they said they are from national security, the BNI and confiscated cars committee, and that they have instructions that there are about 3 government vehicles in my house so they are coming for them. My wife asked them for their warrant, they didn’t have the warrant so she refused them entry. So 2 of the vehicles left, leaving 2, and they said they are going to secure a warrant and they will be back,” he said.

“If I have state vehicles in my possession, the state can use any other power under its jurisdiction to ask me to surrender. Why would you have to send security and armed men to the house? Two policemen have weapons, and the others are BNI officers with a pistol around their waist,” he added.

Nii Lante Vanderpuye insisted that, he made the full payment for the state vehicle and completed all the relevant processes to transfer ownership to him.

“The only vehicle I have which used to belong to the state, has been sold to me when we were leaving office. I bought it and paid for it, a Toyota Avensis. I used it when I was a deputy minister and a minister. The process started in December, and ended before we left office in January, but I finally got all the documentations somewhere at the end of January and also I didn’t have all the money to pay the customs so when I finally got the money, I paid the customs duty and got the clearance and everything before I re-registered the vehicle between February and March 2017,” he said.

“I paid over GH¢30,000 as the value and when we had paid that amount of money, we were told to pay duty to the GRA and that one too was done, about GH¢29,000 in all, about ¢GH50,000 I paid on that vehicle,” he added.

But in a subsequent interview on Eyewitness News from the UK, Mr. Vandepuye said the remaining two vehicles the alleged BNI officers came in, has left his house.

He said he had confirmation that the officers left his house after they had been instructed by the District Police Commander to leave the premises since they did not have a warrant.

Meanwhile, the MP has said he will lodge a formal complaint at the Police station to have the issue investigated.

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post BNI besiege Nii Lante’s house in search of state cars appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to him, the NPP has not been truthful in dealing with the supposed missing state vehicles saga.

[contextly_sidebar id=”XR2dtD1KMdNRjsAxhvflVuUKbmRaDeJJ”]Speaking on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News on Friday, [February 10, 2017], Mr Kwakye Ofosu said, the NPP’s desire to rush to the media to make announcements without conducting the needed audit to reconcile documents of the cars, is improper.

“Let us not underestimate the kind of damage that this sort of behaviors does to our country because this news is on the BBC. There are those who may think that they are deriving some political mileage from this, but eventually, it embarrasses Ghana as a whole. It creates the impression that we are not a serious country and we simply cannot get this record-keeping right. And I don’t think it is proper. We don’t have to do this to ourselves,” he said.

The Director of Communications at the Presidency, Eugene Arhin, revealed to the media on Wednesday [February 8], that there are so far 208 cars unaccounted for from the Flagstaff House’s vehicle pool, based on the assessment of some car models in the inventory.

His claims suggested that some officials of the immediate past government were in possession of the vehicles, but according to Mr Kwakye Ofosu, the NPP government must consult the relevant authorities at the various ministries, departments, and agencies to get information about the other vehicles it claims are missing.

“The fact that a vehicle belongs to the office of the president does not mean you will find it necessarily at the Flagstaff House; because these vehicles even though they belong to the presidency, are given out for the use of various government officials and agencies.”

“There is appropriate documentation covering all the cars. If any vehicle is taken out, it is well documented; and they have one of the best recording keeping system at the Presidency as far as logistics and vehicles are concerned; so it is very easy to reconcile. What you need to do is to speak to relevant officials who have possession of these documents and information to be able to help you with a broad picture as far as logistics and vehicles of the presidency are concerned.”

Mahama’s Ford gift part of vehicle pool

He added that, the $100,000 Ford vehicle gifted to former President John Mahama by a Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe, had been added to the state’s vehicle pool bequeathed to the new government.

“That vehicle is still in the possession of the Presidency. About 370 vehicles were handed over physically to the Ayikoi Otoo-led committee and that vehicle is part of it [vehicle pool],” he said on Eyewitness News.

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @jnyabor

The post NPP embarrassing Ghana internationally over ‘missing cars’ – Kwakye Ofosu appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.