By
William Yaw Owusu
Monday,
September 04, 2017
The contracts
awarded by the Electoral Commission (EC) to private companies for the
construction of pre-fabricated (PreFAB) offices in some districts throughout
the country are coming under scrutiny.
This is because the
petitioners, who are seeking to trigger impeachment proceedings against the EC chairperson,
Charlotte Osei, have claimed that the EC boss awarded the contracts worth over $14
million without recourse to the commission.
The petitioners
accused Charlotte Osei of “engaging in cronyism by awarding contracts to the
tune of $14,310,961 to her cronies for the construction of Pre-fabricated
District offices without recourse to the Commission.”
However, the EC boss
said she got approval from the PPA.
Hidden Identity
The identity of an
individual, whose company was given some of the contract worth over $5 million,
has been hidden in the offer letter allegedly signed by Madam Charlotte Osei.
The company, Cads
Contracts & Services Limited, was allegedly given enough mobilization for
the project to commence but it is unclear if it had been able to execute its
share of the projects - eight months after receiving mobilization.
On the contract
letter prepared on December 19, 2016 after the general elections, Mrs. Osei signed
on behalf of the commission while the name which has clearly be canceled with
an indelible ink, endorsed on behalf of the company as the Managing Director.
No Witnesses
Strangely, there
were no witnesses for both the EC and Cads Contract & Services Limited,
although there were spaces designated for witnesses of both parties.
According to EC
sources, such contracts were normally witnessed by the deputies under the
former chairman, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, but that is not the case under the
current chairperson.
Under the agreement,
Cads Contract & Services Limited was asked to construct Pre-fab offices in
Lot 3 in Greater Accra (3), Central (9) and Western (7) at the cost of $2,674,114.80
as well as another in Lot 4 in Volta (6) and Eastern (17) worth $3,204,402.14.
The other company,
Clicotech Limited, had a contract worth $4,278,340.61 for the construction of
the same Pre-fab offices in Lot 1 in Upper West (7), Upper East (10) and
Northern Region (12), as well as another $4,181,104.98 in Lot 2 in Brong-Ahafo
(17) and Ashanti Region (12).
However, on the
contract letter, its managing director, Emmanuel Danso, is boldly shown as
signing the contract and also the EC chairperson signing on behalf of the
commission.
The two signatories,
however, did not have anybody endorsing the contract as witnesses.
PPA Approval
Per documents
available to DAILY GUIDE, only the two out of the five companies presented
to the PPA by the commission for the restricted tendering were given the contracts.
Although, the PPA,
through its then Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Sallas-Mensah, in a letter
with reference PPA/CEO/08/1851/16, granted the approval for the EC to use
$7,500,000 for the projects, the total cost ballooned to $14,311,002.53 million.
There appears to be
no indication yet that the EC boss went back to the PPA for further approval
when the contract sum scaled up.
Petitioners’ Insistence
The petitioners are
insisting that “Charlotte Osei decided to construct new pre-fab district
offices without either discussing or informing the commission. The service of a
consultant was procured without the knowledge of the commission for the
projects.”
They claimed that
when the consultant recommended four companies with expertise in the pre-fab
project, it did not include Cad & Contract Services Limited, alleging that Mrs
Osei ‘single-handedly’ included the company in the project and awarded the
contract without recourse to the commission.
CJ Directive
Already, the Chief Justice
has asked Mrs. Osei and her two deputy commissioners - Georgina Opoku-Amankwa
in-charge of Corporate Service and Amadu Sulley in-charge of Operations - who
are also facing impeachment proceedings, have up to tomorrow, September 5, to
file their official responses to the allegations of corruption and abuse of
office.
There are currently
two petitions brought against the embattled EC boss and a counter petition
against the two deputies.
The first petition
was filed by unnamed EC staff who are being led by Lawyer Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang,
against Mrs. Osei, who has since sued the lawyer for defamation.
A litany of allegations have been leveled
against her, including spending GH¢3.9 million to partition an office, receipt
of a Toyota Land Cruiser from the erstwhile Mahama-led NDC government, spending
about $14 million when the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) had authorized
her to use only $7.5 million, as well as attending Cabinet meetings during the
tenure of President John Dramani Mahama, among other issues.
Second Petition
The second one was
filed by a lawyer called Douglass Seidu, who is claiming that Mrs Osei was in
breach of public procurement practices and provisions of the Public Procurement
Act 2003 (Act 663), as well as gross financial mismanagement.
He accused the EC boss
of awarding contracts amounting to GH¢249,081,895.03 and $71,406,388.80
respectively without following the required procurement processes and laws.
Fights Back
Mrs Charlotte Osei,
through her lawyers - Sory@Law - who are also the commission’s external solicitors,
hit back at her accusers, insisting that she had not been corrupt or abused her
office and rather accused her two deputies of deliberately scheming to
frustrate her stay in office.
The chairperson, in
her initial response, openly accused Ms. Opoku-Amankwaa of signing contracts
worth over $40 million without her knowledge and authorization between May and
September 2015.
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