We sold unserviceable vehicles — Metro Mass Board Chairman

The Board Chairman of Metro Mass Transit Company Limited, Mr Ahmed Arthur, has stated that the sale of over 200 unserviceable buses were based on a re-evaluation by the State Transport Company (STC).

He said the reduction in the auction price was based on a re-evaluation done in 2017.

According to Mr Arthur, the auction could not be conducted based on the initial 2016 report because, there was neither a board nor management in place

In 2017, when a new board was reconstituted, the mandatory six months period had elapsed so an auction could not be conducted based on the 2016 evaluation report.

He said by the time the re-evaluation was done in 2017, most of the buses had been cannibalised, which beat down the auction price.

But in an interview with the Daily Graphic, Mr Arthur flatly denied the claims and stated that he never interfered in the valuation or auction processes.

He indicated that the vehicles were, therefore, sold as scrap metals because there were no engines and seats in those buses. They were also not roadworthy and so had to be sold off as scrap.

No compromise

Mr Arthur is reported to have compromised the valuation of the 202 unserviceable buses, which resulted in a loss of over GH¢1 million to the transport company.

“I did not send anybody to acquire any of the auctioned buses or did I play a role in the auction of those buses,” he stated.

The buses were declared “unserviceable” and as a company policy, they were supposed to be sold off as scrap.

Valuation report

The board chairman of the troubled transport company showed the Daily Graphic documents that suggested that the company gained more than what was expected in the valuation report.

The document stated that the company was expected to realise an amount of GH¢349,900 from the auction but instead raised GH¢388,596 from the sale of 202 unserviceable scrap busses.

Revaluation of buses

In December 2016, the Valuation Department of the State Transport Company (STC) valued 202 buses to be auctioned but the process was halted because a new board and management were not properly constituted.

When the revaluation was done, however, the value further fell by 85 per cent, dropping from GH¢1, 397,000  to GH¢373,800 for all 202 vehicles.

In October 2017, the Chairman of the Scraps Committee, mandated to oversee the disposal of the buses, wrote to the Managing Director of Metro Mass, raising questions of inaccuracies in the valuation report.

Troubled Metro Mass

The Metro Mass Transit company has lately been in the news for alleged acts of corruption with the  Managing Director allegedly caught on tape attempting to circumvent procurement processes in the purchase of supplies for the company.

The Technical Assistant, Managing Director, Bennet Aboagye, Yiadom Boakye Kessie and Procurement Manager, Rose Owusu, were captured on tape asking the head of procurement to select their preferred supplier, a clear violation of the rules.