Posted
on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Thursday,
August 24, 2017
The debate over how many state vehicles were
actually left by the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC)
administration before exiting office is resurfacing.
This follows the acquisition of a tracking device by
the current New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to locate all the vehicles
that have fallen into the hands of unauthorized persons.
Once the chassis number of the vehicle is entered
into the tracking device, it is able to send officials straight to the location
where the vehicle is being kept.
Search
Warrant
Nana Odeneho Oppong, Director-General in-charge of Transport
and Logistics at the presidency, told DAILY GUIDE on Tuesday that the
taskforce was going to use all legal means, including application for a search
warrant, to retrieve the vehicles.
He said a test run of the tracking device even sent
officials to locations in Accra where two Toyota Land Cruiser V8s and Toyota Land
Cruiser Prado were retrieved recently.
He said one of the Land Cruisers with registration
number GE 2925-14, fitted with special communications gadget and a siren, was
parked at the Police Barracks behind the DVLA and the purported owner, a
policeman, had been asked to report himself.
Previous
Taskforce
Nana Oppong also said the NPP government had
disbanded all groups that were pursuing stolen cars in the heat of the
transition and has formed a special taskforce made up of the police, military
and DVLA officials to go for the stolen cars using the tracking device.
He therefore, advised anybody who might be in what
he called ‘illegal’ possession of government vehicle to return it voluntarily
or face the music.
Missing
Vehicles
The erstwhile NDC government claimed that it left
behind 641 vehicles, including saloon cars; but according to Nana Oppong, only
173 vehicles had been officially handed over to him.
Interestingly, he said the cars the NDC claimed it left
behind include some 43 saloon cars they sold to officials of the previous
government at outrageous prices.
Currently, he said his office is chasing owners of 43
saloon cars that were not supposed to have been auctioned by the Mr Mahama’s administration
because those cars were less than two years old as mandated by law and that
some of the people who acquired them were not entitled to them.
Official
Pursuit
They were all 2015 brands the state acquired but
sold to former ministers and appointees at ridiculous prices just after a year,
contrary to the policy on the acquisition of government cars.
Former National Security Advisor, Baba Camara for
instance, is said to have taken home a 2015 Toyota Camry while Limuna
Mohammed-Muniru, a former Minister of Food and Agriculture, got a 2015 Nissan
Teana and Nii Lantey Vanderpuije, former Minister of Sports, taking home a 2015
Toyota Avensis.
Documents showed that less than two-year-old Toyota
Camry was reportedly valued at GH¢4,000 and all these happened after December 7
last year when the NDC had lost the crucial general election.
Post-Election
Sale
A former presidential staffer, Sam Nettey George -
who is currently the NDC Member of Parliament (MP) for Ningo Prampram - had
said in February that 271 out of 641 vehicles were auctioned to the staffers at
the presidency, confirming the earlier reports that some of the state vehicles
were missing.
Sam George told Citi
FM in Accra, “Now, of this 370, there is a disparity of between 370 and
641. This is because 271 saloon cars were purchased by staffers who had put in
requests to purchase their vehicles which were two years and above.”
He admitted that the NDC government sold the
vehicles after the December 7, 2016 general election, saying, “You cannot sell
the vehicles to the people before the elections. You will only sell after the
elections are done and dusted and you know that people are leaving office,”
adding, “I can bet you in 2012 very few vehicles were sold between the
Mills/Mahama switching into the Mahama administration because it was basically
the same party.”
However, Nana Oppong said his office had written to
all those involved in the transactions to return the cars in peace, saying,
“the taskforce is going all out to retrieve the cars.”
He revealed that they had information that some of
the cars were auctioned to automobile firms and other private companies in contravention
of the law and added that some former officials had the vehicles and
transferred them to other people.
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