Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament were yesterday astonished at revelations of serious infractions reported by the Auditor-General on the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).
The revelations bordered on improper award of contracts, huge amounts of money paid as consultancy fees without proper justification, unnecessary foreign trips by officials of SADA and unlawful withdrawal of SADA money from its accounts by the government, mostly in the election year – 2012.
The Ministry of Finance and for that matter, the government, was said to have withdrawn a whopping $1 billion from SADA accounts in 2012 to execute an electrification project in the North and a further GH¢38 million which use could not be properly justified by officials of SADA who appeared before the committee yesterday to respond to various queries raised in the 2012, 2013 and 2014 reports of the Auditor General.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Charles Abugre, said the government explained that the withdrawal was urgent and had agreed to pay the money back, adding that it took the money in the form of an emergency loan to carry out that electrification project.
The committee, which was not satisfied with the answer, asked the Minister of Finance to appear before it to explain the circumstances under which the money was taken and reasons for that action.
One major questionable contract carried out in 2012 by SADA was the tree planting contract awarded to the Asongtaba Cottage Industry (ACI) in the northern sector of the country worth GH¢32.9 million.
It was done by sole-sourcing and the contract was approved in the dry season when most of the trees that were planted ended up dying.
The Auditor General had recommended that the contractor be made to refund the money to the state or the then Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Alhaji Gilbert Seidu Iddi, who supervised the award of the contract, be surcharged with whatever money that had been wasted as a result of that bad contract.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai, Kingsley Aboagye-Gyedu and MP for Atwima Mponua, Isaac Asiamah – both members of the committee – strongly questioned why the contract of a tree planting in the north, where the dry season conditions are harsh, should be awarded in such a season, and whether the company had the competence to undertake such tree planting exercise.
The two MPs therefore asked the committee to request for further details on the contract, the track record of ACI in tree planting and the names of directors of the company.
The committee members unanimously agreed that those details be provided by SADA while officials of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) have been asked to appear before the committee to explain the circumstance under which the contract was approved by the Authority.
Consultancy Fees
When it came to the huge payment of consultancy fees to outsiders which amounted to GH¢620,209 despite the fact that there were supposed to be staff who had similar expertise, the vice chairman of the committee, Samuel Atta Akyea, became very incensed about the huge sum of money wasted on mere consultancy which could have otherwise been done by some staff of SADA.
He questioned why one Kennedy Mohammed, who served as a consultant for SADA and had purchased a laptop for GH¢6,000 to do his consultancy work for the Authority, was reimbursed with the amount he spent on the laptop.
His continuous chastisement of SADA for the wanton dissipation of public funds elicited some kind of reply from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for Gomoa Central, Rachel Appoh, who said Mr Atta Akyea was being too political.
But the vice chairman of PAC, who is also the NPP MP for Abuakwa South, did not take kindly to the comment made by the Gomoa Central MP, saying that if she as MP for the ruling party wanted to defend the rot at SADA, she should be made to take the oath and assume the witness chair to defend it.
Expensive Foreign Trips
The MPS were divided when it came to castigating SADA for the wastage, but when it came to the foreign trips made by officials of SADA to Turkey for sister-city programme and marketing trips to Britain and Germany which together amounted to GH¢265,000, the NDC MP for Shai-Osudoku, David Tetteh Assumeng, completely agreed with the MP for Atwima Mponua who said the trips were wasteful.
The chairman of the committee, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, did not understand the wisdom in SADA spending a huge sum of money to renovate its property.
The committee therefore requested for a copy of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between government and SADA on the renovation of the property and the details of lease agreement between WIENCO and SADA.
The SADA boss, Dr Charles Abugre, told the committee that there are now better structures in place to make SADA more efficient and effective to deliver on its mandate.
All the infractions could not be considered, especially those in the 2014 report of the Auditor General.
Officials of SADA would be summoned again to come and respond to the remaining malfeasances which are also damning.
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