By
William Yaw Owusu
Monday,
September 18, 2017
Details are emerging
about how the contract awarded by Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC)
government for the procurement of some 30 ambulances estimated at €2.4 million,
landed in the hands of one of the NDC’s foot-soldiers.
The sole-sourcing
contract was said to have been awarded during the time of Alban S.K. Bagbin as
Minister of Health, to an aide of former National Security Advisor, Brigadier
General Joseph Nunoo-Mensah (Rtd), called Richard Dzakpa, in 2010.
Dzakpa, who is
believed to have no expertise in the procurement of sensitive health equipment,
was said to have purchased the Benz ambulances from Dubai instead of Germany,
where the vehicles in question are manufactured.
However, the ambulances
have been found not to be fit for the purpose for which they were acquired,
although Ghana paid a whopping €2.4 million for the transaction; and the
manufacturers had recommended them to be used as ‘trotro’ (commercial vehicles).
Even though the
previous government at Cabinet insisted it wouldn’t pay for the buses, it ended
up paying the money without knowing the recipient.
‘Trotro’ Ambulance
Information Minister,
Mustapha Hamid, said on Joy FM at the
weekend that the current government’s checks from the manufacturer of the
vehicles (Mercedes Benz) showed that they (vehicles) were ordinary 13-seater
passenger buses known in local parlance as ‘trotro’ and not ambulances as the
supplier made the government to believe.
He said a technical
examination conducted on the vehicles delivered to the government in 2014, revealed
as many as 18 defects, making them unfit for the initial purpose.
200 Ambulances
It turned out that Mr
Richard Dzakpa, who operates a firm called Big Sea Company, was given a contract
to procure 200 ambulances for the health ministry and the initial 30 he
supplied cost the taxpayer €2.4 million.
According to the
minister, the NDC government also approved the payment of bank charges in
excess of €6,000, although it (government) had rejected the ambulances and as a
result, the payment should not even have been done.
Segbefia Factor
When the news broke
about the bad ambulances, the immediate-past Minister of Health, Alex Perceval
Segbefia, under whose tenure the payment was believed to have been done, distanced
himself from the scandal.
As if possessed, the
former minister quickly granted an interview to Citi FM in Accra on Wednesday saying, “No contract was signed under
my tenure. People keep forgetting that I was the minister for 18 months and
there were seven ministers over an eight-year period so no contract or no financial
arrangement was done under my tenure as minister.
“I have no problem
with any investigative body investigating what has occurred with regards to any
matter under the Ministry of Health either before or during the tenure under
which I am, and if I have to assist, I am willing to assist anyone who is part
of the investigative team or the investigative body, so that is not a major
concern to me,” he posited.
He, however, charged
the government to ensure that the ambulances are cleared from the port and used
effectively.
He said, “I welcome
the investigations that the minister wants to embark upon, but while the
investigations are ongoing, it is also important to see how quickly we can get
the equipment out of the port. Let’s kick out the ambulances and let’s deal
with what has gone wrong. Let it not be like a situation with the gallopers
which were left for years to rust.”
Direct Contradictions
Surprisingly, the
same Mr. Segbefia had rejected the first consignment of 30 ambulances, which
arrived in 2016, when he was health minister, saying at that time they were
substandard but when the current minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu, blew the cover,
he (Segbefia) is now asking the government to clear the ambulances and use
them.
Full Disclosure
Mr. Agyeman-Manu had
made the ambulance scandal disclosure during a familiarization tour of some
health facilities in Accra, which took him to the Tema General Hospital, Tema
Medical Stores, La General Hospital and the Air Force Base, where the
ambulances are being kept.
The unannounced
visit was to interact with the health workers and take note of their
institutional challenges.
The minister said that
his outfit had referred the matter to the Economic and Organized Crime Office
(EOCO) for further investigations.
Mr. Agyemang-Manu
told journalists on Wednesday that in the course of the transition, it was
detected that the ambulances, meant for the National Ambulance Service (NAS),
were supplied but the ministry did not accept them because of the specification
shortcomings - even though they were paid for.
Enquiries by the
ministry’s new leadership revealed that the €2.4m had been paid through a Bank
of Ghana (BoG) transaction to the supplier of the ambulances, although they
were rejected for being below the standard of NAS.
The 30 vehicles,
purchased at the cost of €80,000 each, were part of the 200 ambulances the
Ministry of Health purchased last year to augment the fleet of NAS in its
emergency health response countrywide.
However, inspections
carried out by NAS after delivery of the vehicles showed that the 30 did not
meet the standard and were therefore rejected by the government, which meant
that until they were replaced, they would not be paid for.
Inconsistencies
Mr. Agyeman-Manu
said his office, upon receiving the information about the payment, followed up
with the contractor - Big Sea Company - only to discover that the company had
no idea that the 30 sub-standard ambulances had been paid for because the
company’s account had not been credited with the money.
“They brought the
proposal and they rejected them during the transition. The report we are
getting was that the supplier supplied, they never accepted, but the ambulances
have been paid for,” Mr. Agyeman-Manu said.
“So I wrote to the Ministry of Finance and
they said that they had paid the €2.4m for the Ministry of Health but records
do not show any payment,” he added.
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