{"id":399000,"date":"2018-02-06T14:50:11","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T14:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=399000"},"modified":"2018-02-06T15:00:55","modified_gmt":"2018-02-06T15:00:55","slug":"we-avoided-judgement-debt-by-accepting-mahama-luxury-cars-hamid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2018\/02\/we-avoided-judgement-debt-by-accepting-mahama-luxury-cars-hamid\/","title":{"rendered":"We avoided judgement debt by accepting \u2018Mahama luxury cars\u2019 – Hamid"},"content":{"rendered":"
Government has explained that it was forced to take delivery of 34 cars purchased for use by the Presidency under the previous administration in order to avoid incurring a judgement debt.<\/p>\n
According to the government, the deal for the purchase of the cars, signed with\u00a0Amalgamated Securities Limited could not be abrogated, hence the decision to accept the cars.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”GVnLhQlWasAooFTJZtsdIm3V1LgI0IR2″]”Government is bound by the terms of the contract signed with Amalgamated Securities Limited. Abrogating the contract may incur significant liabilities for government,”\u00a0Information Minister Mustapha Hamid said at a press conference on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He added that, they had successfully renegotiated with the Security company to bring down the cost incurred by the nation for the cars by about three hundred thousand dollars.<\/p>\n
“Government has however made sure to obtain maximum gain for the public purse, and also for ensuring the security of the state. We have reduced the number of vehicles ordered from 43 to 34, which is nine short of the original number. In place of the nine, we have acquired 100 Toyota Corolla cars for use by the Police Service in line with our commitment to retool the Police Service to enable them play effectively, their role of protecting the Ghanaian people.We have done all this with a total amount of US$ 8.8 million,” the Information Minister added.<\/p>\n
43 cars down to 34<\/strong><\/p>\n Citi News <\/strong>had reported\u00a0that\u00a0<\/strong>Government over the weekend took delivery of 34 cars for the presidency, ten of which have bullet resistant exterior.<\/p>\n The contract for the presidential fleet was awarded by the John Mahama administration barely a week before they left office.<\/p>\n The original number of cars ordered was 43. The New Patriotic Party administration, which had attempted to cancel the entire contract but failed due to\u00a0certain clauses<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0in the contract, managed to reduce the number to 34.<\/p>\n Back in June 2017, some NDC officials accused the NPP administration of playing double-standards, after news about the presidential fleet emerged, despite an order by President Nana Akufo-Addo, halting the purchase of new vehicles.<\/p>\n The government then explained that it could not be blamed for the presidential fleet because the order had already been placed by John Dramani Mahama administration before they exited office after the elections in 2016.<\/p>\n ‘NPP wanted the cars’<\/b><\/p>\n