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There have been calls for the decentralization of passport acquisition in Ghana to ease the congestion and underhand dealings at Passport Application Centers (PACS).

Acquisition of a passport has been time consuming and nightmarish; a situation where people sometimes spend days commuting to and from the Passport Office before being issued with a passport.

Speaking on 3FM’s Sunrise, Mr. Ntrakwa noted that the decentralization process isn’t an option at the moment for security reason, which he said was not ready to deal with the implications.

“I am talking about the best practice that all countries are exercising now and I don’t think even the U.S A. where we look at as the best democratic country even practices that”.

Mr. Ntrakwa maintained, “I lived in the US for four years and I wasn’t aware of a situation where maybe New York State printed passports and Illinois has different place for printing passports.

“Considering the security architecture globally I don’t subscribe to a situation where a country like Ghana will be printing passports in different locations within the country”.

Source: Nana Afrane Asante | tv3network.com | Ghana

The Minority is therefore questioning the due diligence the government did before concluding on the over 90 million dollars deal with a Chinese firm, China Hunan Construction Engineering Group to extend electricity to some 556 communities in Volta, Eastern and Northern Regions of Ghana.

The minority is raising eyebrow on this particular deal when it emerged that the local partner of the firm is Smarttys Management and Productions Limited, a company found to have overpriced by GHc1.9 million, a bus branding deal it had with government recently.

Meanwhile, an initial Value for Money audit by international firm Crown Agents said the electrification contract had been overpriced by more than 20 million dollars. A further assessment by the same agency found that the deal has been overpriced by some 9 million dollars and called for the contract scope to be widened proportionately.

Parliament however passed the deal today, Monday 14th March 2016.

The MP for Manhyia South, Mathew Opoku Prempeh who made serious reservation about the deal told Parliament earlier that government should not have entered into the deal with the Chinese firm when it found out that its local partner was Smarttys.

“Mr. Speaker, I haven’t said anybody has stolen money so please don’t add that in the Hansard. All I am saying is that, if the government did any due diligence and found out that the local representative of this contract is the same contractor who has been found to overbill the government in similar contract, we would have advised ourselves.

“Mr. Speaker, even by the World Bank procurement laws, that company that has been found in one corner of the world abusing a World Bank process is banned from all World Bank projects for a number of years. How come the government negotiators, lawyers, economists and deputy Ministers all did not find out that there is a similarity between Smarttys in this contract and Smarttys in the rebranding. Smarttys overbilling here, Smarttys overbilling there, Smarttys overbilling everywhere….Mr. Speaker, we are talking about due diligence,” he rejected the contract.
“The re-pricing and overpricing is getting just overboard,” frustrated Opoku Prempeh later told Citi FM.

He criticized the Majority for what he described as “yen tie obiaa attitude” that is refusing to listen to dissenting views as it uses its number to pass the deal.

He noted that when the Minority raised questions they were “taunted by the Majority and called us all sorts of names because they want the deal quickly passed”.

He further maintained, “The majority didn’t just care, the yen tie obiaa attitude. It has happened with the Ridge [hospital project], it has happened with other contracts. We have seen it over, and over again.

“The stock in trade of this government is not to listen, not to do value for money, not to be transparent…what we are saying is the epitome of this government. This is the nature of this government not to do anything right or above board.”

But Mutawakilu Adam, the MP for Damongo and Deputy Chairman of the Energy and Mines Committee of Parliament, vehemently rejected Minority’s position on due diligence.

“Parliament and committee have been very, very diligent and we have done a good job,” he said of the passage of the bill.
He also said Minority’s claim of overpricing is ill-informed.

The initial 22.7 million that was quoted by Crown Agent as being the overpriced figure was not based on “existing contract but based on a similar contract somewhere”, he explained, adding it is even subject to changes depending on the situation at the actual project site.

Insisting that the committee was “highly convinced that government did a good job”, Mr. Adam wondered why nobody or organization sent a document to Parliament after the deal was made public to challenge the price of the project.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister of Energy John Jinapor has told TV3 government has no contract with Smarttys so far as the rural electrification project is concerned, adding the government did not concern itself about the local partner the Chinese firm chooses to deal with.

Source: Isaac Essel | tv3network.com | Ghana

According to Stan Dogbe, some of his colleagues in government are conniving with certain media houses to do him in by circulating information that his wife’s company, EventPR, produced the error-riddled brochure.

“It is trite knowledge that I was a business owner before entering politics. It is no secret that I run the EventPR Company.

“It is a fact that EventPR published the funeral brochure for my big sisters, Hon Hanna Tetteh and Hon Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare. With all due respect, is it a sin for EventPR to do business because of my links with the company?

“For a colleague appointee to carry copies of the two brochures to prove to people, including NPP friends, that my wife’s company published the Independence Day brochure is disgustingly low. It is sheer wickedness,” he stated in a statement on Friday.

The presidential staffer added, “Some may have their own reasons for conniving with journalists and NPP elements to lie about me and build disaffection for me, but we must all remember that we are mere mortals.”

Stan wonders why the unnamed colleague would want to draw his wife into the scandal by circulating the company’s registration certificates and share allocations.

“While you are at it, kindly leave my wife and my sister out of this Hatred-for-Stan campaign.

“Kindly bear in mind that turning me over to your paid media hirelings will not win us the elections,” he said.

Until the scandal broke, Stan Dogbe was the head of communications at the Flagstaff House and was linked to the brochure saga, leading to his reassignment to the Protocol Department of the presidency.

The brochure was characterised by grammatical errors, spelling mistakes and a host of other inaccuracies. Among the many mistakes was the naming of Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta, as the President of Ghana.

The acting Director at the Information Services Department (ISD), Francis Kwarteng Arthur, claimed sole responsibility for the mess and the axe has fallen on him.

Stan Dogbe on Friday denied that EventPR had anything to do with the publishing of the Independence Day brochure.

“The EventPR undoubtedly has one of the best concepts, designs and publishing teams in the country, but the company has never produced any document or publication for the Office of the President.

“Furthermore, the company did not publish, let alone print the Independence Day brochure.

“As we continue on this anti-Stan agenda for whatever reason, let us sit and ponder over our own actions and positive contribution to the Mahama administration and upcoming campaign. Let us ask ourselves whether we are being sincere and committed to the appointing authority,” he charged.

The sacked acting ISD director, Francis Kwarteng Arthur, is also director of EventPR.

IMANI Angle

However, president of policy think-tank IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, believes the errors in Ghana’s 59th independence anniversary brochure were deliberately done to embarrass President John Mahama.

Speaking on Citi FM’s current affairs and news analysis programme, ‘The Big Issue,’ Mr Cudjoe questioned why some portions of the brochure were written without mistakes, while some parts were full of grammatical and factual errors.

He is of the view that the processes used to award the contract of printing the brochure to some individuals brought about sabotage.

“I don’t see how any normal person who has gone through some form of secondary school education would have put together these words… you could tell that other parts of the brochure were written quite well, so for me it’s either a combination of witchcraft, vodoo or sabotage,” he said.

Source: Daily Guide | Ghana