Minority MPs raise concerns with $98m Smarttys rural electrification deal
The Minority in Parliament has raised concerns with a $98million rural electrification project which is being spearheaded by Smarttys Production and Management Limited.
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According to the Minority, Parliament ought to ensure that there was value for money in the deal especially as Smarttys has recently been involved in the questionable GhȻ3.6million Metro Mass Transit bus branding deal.
The $98million rural electrification project is to be undertaken by a Chinese company with Smarttys as its local representatives.
The project was approved by Parliament on the last day of sitting before the Christmas break but the minority claimed that it was rushed through without proper scrutiny and therefore calling for a review to ensure value for money.
The Minority Leader, Mr Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu argued that the Majority used its numbers to push the deal through.
“When may be somebody is involved in criminality or malfeasance and the case has not been dealt with, do you give the person another contract when the first issue that he is involved in some impropriety has been uncovered, when you have not dealt with do you give the person or company another contract? You don’t.”
Speaking on radio (Joy FM) Tuesday morning, the Minority Leader said government should have exercised much caution at a time when Smarttys was embroiled in a scandalous GhȻ3.6million branding contract.
“I felt because the ink had not dried up on this transaction, and apparently some fraud was involved in that, I felt the time was not ripe for us as a nation to be dealing with the same company again.
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“From further probing we got to know that the executives had engaged some consultants to do some value for money for that project and some savings have been made; I understand in the neighborhood of $9million.
“But I insisted that Parliament, we have an amount set aside for such an exercise, parliament should hold it and engage experts and consultants in the field, let them do value for money audit for us before we could also go ahead to consider it.
“Unfortunately, as usual, it was a minority voice and the majority voted on the final day of sitting for this programme, and I felt it was not good enough,” the Minority Leader pointed out.
He further stated that he only saw the contract on the same day it was laid and approved by Parliament under a certificate of urgency.
“We are willing to come back on [the various contracts] …we will be firm on that, we will attend to that,” the Minority Leader asserted.
He criticized the situation where government “lurks” key contracts and “crowds” Parliament's last sitting with contracts for approval.
Though he admitted the style has been the stock in trade of various governments, “except one will say that things are getting untidier under this administration”.
In a response, Dr. Edward Omane Boamah, the Communications Minister said due diligence was done on the $98 million electrification deal.
He accused the Minority Leader of only conjecturing and therefore challenged him to support his claim with specifics if he has any evidence of impropriety.
“If he has strong suspicion or strong evidence of impropriety it would be better for him to put that out with the exact particulars rather than extrapolating,” the Communications Minister said.