{"id":178102,"date":"2015-12-30T19:10:09","date_gmt":"2015-12-30T19:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=178102"},"modified":"2015-12-30T19:10:09","modified_gmt":"2015-12-30T19:10:09","slug":"178102","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2015\/12\/178102\/","title":{"rendered":"Of 116 buses, images, our flag and creeping megalomania"},"content":{"rendered":"
About a year after Samuel Nuamah-Donkor had been appointed Chief Executive of the State Transport Corporation (STC) now Intercity STC in rancorous and quite comical circumstances, he was quoted by\u00a0a news portal on April 22nd April 2015, as having said that, \u201cIntercity STC to name buses after national heroes\u201d. That one of the things he planned to do was to name STC buses after leaders like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, Dr. Busia, J.J. Rawlings and J.A. Kufour and that of their wives, traditional leaders, past heroes etc.<\/p>\n
How giving names to buses would improve STS\u2019s efficiency, timeliness, safety, reliability, ensure profitability and recover STC\u2019s once loyal passengers, now understandably and almost irrecoverably lost to VIP, OA Transport and other private transport operators I couldn\u2019t rationalize, but Nuamah-Donkor sounded smug at his \u2018invention\u2019. I thought \u201csilly idea\u201d.<\/p>\n
STC\u2019s plethora of problems, as Nuamah-Donkor very well knows, will not be solved by naming buses after our leaders, past and present, dead or alive. In any case, how does being the wife of a Head of State make one a national hero? What apart from a scheme to enrich someone would drive such a project? So what if a bus named after J.A. Kufour is involved in an accident and is damaged beyond repair? Will they say J.A. Kufour is dead? I hope STC did not implement this not well thought out, misplaced idea.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”FuCI0FbrlMjbIHFe1IkNNBHij9ycikcK”]Then last week it was revealed that our country, Ghana, had contracted Smarttys Management and Production Ltd; \u201cSmarttys\u201d owned by the fair complexioned, well connected, prominent NDC activist, Selassie Ibrahim, to brand (not re-brand) 116 new Metro Mass Transit buses with images of past and present Presidents and Heads of State of Ghana.<\/p>\n
A pro-forma invoice from Smarttys dated 17th<\/sup> July 2015 addressed to the Minister of Transport put the cost of branding each bus at GH\u20b530,400.00 or US$8,444.00 (the cost of a brand new Hyundai i10 or Kia Picanto). This consisted of materials for spraying the buses (ie paint, thinner etc); Gh\u20b514,200.00, \u201cVision Stickers\u201d@ Gh\u20b51250.00 each and, as per the quote for 8 of these stickers, Gh\u20b510,000.00 per bus.<\/p>\n
These \u201cVision Stickers\u201d are the \u201cTransforming Ghana\u201d \u2018\u2019Agenda for Transformation\u201d etc stickers emblazoned on the buses. Going by the quotation, there should be 8 of these stickers on each vehicle.<\/p>\n
If there are less than 8 per bus, the Attorney-General must prosecute Smarttys for fraud and initiate civil action for the recovery of the amount paid for this component of the contract. That is if there is a contract.<\/p>\n
I suspect Smarttys may have sent a proposal which was accepted. Other aspects of the Pro-forma are; Cost of coated SAV sticker; Gh\u20b51,210.00, Labour for spraying; Gh\u20b53000.00 and \u201cLabour Cost (I presume to fix) for stickers\u201d; Gh\u20b52000.00. Total per vehicle: Gh\u20b530,400.00 or US$8,444.44 @Gh\u20b53.6 to US$1.00, at today\u2019s bank rate.<\/p>\n
Total cost to the Government and people of Ghana (the beneficiaries of this public awareness campaign):\u00a0 Gh\u20b53,600,000.00, the equivalent today of US$1,000,000.00. One million dollars\u2026. It will be interesting to know if Smarrtys has paid any tax on this income or whether tax was withheld before payment was made to them.<\/p>\n
Some of those buses are parked at the State House car park. They\u2019ve been there for months. The sight of them makes me cringe. The Smarttys job includes sticking bus window height photos in black and white of democratically elected former heads of State like J.J. Rawlings, J.A. Kufour, J.E.A. Mills, Edward Akuffo-Addo, Hilla Limann and K. A. Busia on both sides of the buses aft of the front doors.<\/p>\n