Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Friday, May 9, 2014
The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) yesterday
confirmed that about GH¢1million was taken from their account to pay for the
supply of the alleged importation of secondhand uniforms for personnel.
The controversy over the supply of the camouflage
uniforms to the service by Jild Ventures became a heated national debate last
October when issues about the quality of supply hit the media terrain.
The scandal even got murkier when
Chairman of the Fire Service Council, Alhaji Amadu Sorogho who is MP for
Madina, Accra, stormed the studios of Oman
FM to vary the details already in the media.
Alhaji Sorogho had engaged the other
panelists on the programme in a bid to pour cold water over the fire generated
by the reports claiming among other things that board did not know the quality
of the uniforms which he added were not destined for personnel of the GNFS but
rather “for fire volunteers and school fire cadet corps”.
Interestingly, he had said that the
uniforms were distributed to officers only to retrieve them when they realized
that they were mismatched and that some of them had condoms and name tag of the
original users.
Yesterday, the Chief Fire Officer together
with the police, military and prisons all appeared before the Commission of
Enquiry investigating the payment of judgement debts to give details of notices
of intention to sue filed against the various security agencies.
Chief
Fire Officer
Brig. Gen. John Bosco Guyiyri who is
acting Chief Fire Officer told Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau that the
court had ordered the GNFS account to be “gleaned”.
“Details of all our accounts particularly at Ghana
Commercial Bank and Bank of Ghana were garnisheed. In the course of the ruling
the court called the managers and ordered them to pay,” and added that “our
account has not been replenished by the state following the incident.”
Flanked by Wynni Azomyan of the Logistsics
Department of GHNS, he said “before the case we were made to write to advise the
Attorney General about the details of the case and from my lay man’s point of
view, I thought we had a case but it turned out the other way.”
He said “the exhibits are still there and the facts
are also there. Some of the uniforms were old. Some were torn and some even had
name tags on them.”
He said what brought the action was that it had been
stated that “we wanted a certain quantity of pairs of uniforms and that was
advertised. Instead of pairs, the contract stated pieces of uniforms and the
supplier arrogated to herself interpreting pieces to mean the top and down as
separate pieces in which case we will pay double for one pair.”
Brig. Gen. Guyiyri said “it was at the time I had
assumed the seat so when they brought the vouchers I refused to sign and that
went on with jostles here and there until the supplier sent the case to court,”
adding “The GNFS Council has written to the government through the Ministry of
the Interior expressing reservations about the judgement and we are awaiting any
action that would be taken.
The
military
Lt. Cols. Charles Gbekle and Benjamin Amoah-Boakye, all
of the Legal Directorate of the Ghana Armed Forces also testified and tendered
documents that indicated that before the military was sued notices of intention
were served on them as the law mandated.
Lt. Col Gbekle however told the commission that some
of the cases were pending in court and could not go further.
Alidu Fuseini, Chief Director of Ministry of Defence
flanked by Group Captain Mike Kwame Appiah-Agyekum of the Ghana Air Force also
testified in the case in which a civilian who died in helicopter crash in Atiwa
Forest in the Eastern Region and his family never received compensation from
the military.
According to documents available to the commission, Victor
Adu Nyarko was a nurse at the Holy Family Hospital, Nkawkaw and when some
soldiers we injured in a road accident he was asked to accompany them to 37
Military Hospital by air but the plane crashed in the Eastern Region.
Subsequently, the families of the deceased were paid
compensation but Mr. Adu Nyarko’s family was discriminated against by the
military. However, it was on record that the deceased’s lawyer sought
compensation from the government for him.
Group Captain Appiah-Agyekum confirmed that
documents available indicated that families of the deceased soldiers were paid
compensation but said they did not have any record indicating Mr. Adu Nyarko’s
family got any compensation.
He told the commission that any civilian who uses
military aircraft, vehicles and other equipment was mandated for complete what
he called an indemnity form and that absolved the military from any liability
should there be an accident adding “the case of the nurse lies in the legal
realm.”
Lt. Col. Amoah-Boakye again testified in the case in
which a military fire tender collided with a KIA truck killing three people and
injuring two others around Kintampo, saying the report on the accident was yet
to be endorsed by the Chief of Defence Staff and therefore he was tendering the
report with a caveat.
Prison
Service
Earlier, Assistant Controllers of Prisons Twumasi
Appiah and Gloria Essandoh had submitted the Ghana Prisons Service’s notices of
intention to sue served on them to the commission.
Anthony A. Kokroko, Legal Officer of the Ghana Police
Service also appeared and requested for more time to be able to present all
notices of intention to sue the police explaining that the volumes of work in
the search was huge.
No comments:
Post a Comment