By William
Yaw Owusu
Tuesday January
09, 2018
It is turning out that the Electoral Commission (EC)
Chairperson, Charlotte Osei, is still allowing payments to private companies whose
contracts are at the centre of the petition that is seeking her impeachment
from office.
Since news about the petitions against her hit the
public domain last year, she has allegedly caused the payment of about GH¢11
million to the private firms for services reportedly rendered to the EC.
The payments are said to be made, in spite of a
strong objection by a finance officer of the commission, who is currently on
interdiction on the orders of Mrs. Osei over the EC’s endowment fund saga.
Before his interdiction, the finance director had queried
the payments on the grounds that the private companies did not have contracts
with the commission.
The petitioners have insisted that most of the
contracts were unilaterally awarded by the EC boss without recourse to the
commission; and in some cases, they claimed that she had breached the Public
Procurement Act by bloating the contract sums.
Payment vouchers emanating from the EC show for
instance, that three companies namely, Messrs Cads Contract & Services Ltd,
Clicotech Aluminium Ltd and CPM Africa Limited, have been paid various sums at
the time their alleged contracts are under scrutiny.
Documents available to DAILY GUIDE show that Messrs
Cads Contract & Services Ltd received at least two payments of
GH¢2,521,583.46 and GH¢2,231,046.88 on December 12, last year, for its service
on what the EC says is “bespoke design and build office space” under LOT 4.
Clicotech Aluminium Ltd on December 12, 2017 was
paid GH¢2,716,121.46 and GH¢2,574,983.47 the following day for the same
“bespoke design and build office space,” but this time, under LOT 3.
The company called CPM Africa Limited was also paid
GH¢574,890.76 for consultancy services rendered in the “bespoke design and
build offices.”
The
contracts, which were awarded by the commission in connection with 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 Mrs Charlotte Osei, have claimed that she awarded the contracts worth
over $14 million without recourse to the commission.
The
petitioners accused her 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 contracts worth
over $5 million, has been hidden in the offer letter allegedly signed by
Charlotte Osei.
The
company, Cads Contracts & Services Limited, owned by a certain Hesse, 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.
Yet
the EC boss, under bizarre circumstances, approved additional payments to the
same company.
On
the contract letter prepared on December 19, 2016 after the general election,
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) Regions
at the cost of $2,674,114.80 as well as another in Lot 4 in Volta (6) and
Eastern (17) Regions 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 (12) Regions, as well as another $4,181,104.98 in Lot 2 in
Brong-Ahafo (17) and Ashanti (12) Regions.
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 her
outfit.
The
two signatories, however, did not have any persons endorsing the contract as
witnesses.
PPA
Approval
Per
documents available to DAILY
GUIDE, only two out of the five companies presented to the Public
Procurement Authority (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.”
Maiden
Appearance
On Monday, December 11, last year, the committee
probing the alleged misconduct of the EC boss and her two deputies, had its
maiden meeting, where both the petitioners and the respondents had a face-to-face
encounter for the first time.
The EC workers, who petitioned President Akufo-Addo,
were represented by two of them and led by their lawyer, Maxwell
Opoku-Agyemang, with the rest waiting in the wings for the showdown.
Charlotte was also accompanied by Thaddeus Sory, who
is the commission’s solicitor and also acting for the EC boss.
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