IMANI's criticism of Kelni GVG contract is 'noise' - Finance Minister

The Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori Atta has waged into the ongoing debate on government’s $89 million contract with Kelni GVG to deal with revenue losses and simbox fraud involving telecommunication companies.

According to him, “the issue of monitoring is important” as government seeks to raise more revenue for development.

The government recently signed an $89 million contract with Kelni GVG to deal with revenue losses and simbox fraud involving telecommunication companies.

The contract, however, has been described by policy think tank, IMANI Africa, as a fraudulent one which must be cancelled.

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According to the President of IMANI, Mr Franklin Cudjoe, the contract is a careless duplication of jobs and a needless drain on the country’s scarce resources.

He argued that Subah Info Solution and Afriwave are already performing similar jobs for the Communication Ministry.

But speaking at the MTN Ghana Initial Public Offering (IPO) launch on Tuesday, Mr Ofori Atta said, “…there’s a whole lot of noise about some platform services going on and I think people have also brought up the issue of data protection. These are all things that we can find cures to without getting political and I think it’s incumbent on the telcos to be able to provide solutions to some of the issues of data protection."

He further noted that “the issue of monitoring is important. This is not the first place that’s going to be done and we should marshal ourselves as a people in a certain direction to make sure that the nation moves ahead.”