General News of Sunday, 15 May 2016
Source: citifmonline.com
File photo
The New Patriotic Party Member of Parliament for the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency, Emmanuel Kyeremateng Agyarko has charged government to disclose the whereabouts of 84 buses which was supposed to be part of the buses that were rebranded for the Metro Mass Transit Company.
According to the MP, government was to import 200 buses with a $40 million loan but instead only 116 were brought into the country. Government has come under intense pressure from the public for spending GHc3.6 million of Ghana’s oil revenue to rebrand the 116 buses.
The Minister of Transport, Dzifa Attivor resigned following the wave of attacks on her Ministry for supervising the expenditure which has been described as waste of resources.
The cost of the project forced pressure groups Occupy Ghana and Citizen Ghana Movement went to court to compel government to release an investigative report the Attorney General conducted on the matter.
Speaking on Citi FM’s News Analysis programme, The Big Issue, the MP commended the pressure groups for their resolve in following the matter to its logical conclusion but urged them to delve deeper into the procurement of the buses. “I think that Occupy Ghana must go beyond the branding and begin to look at those buses themselves.
Government went for a loan of 40 million dollars to procure 200 buses. So far they have done 116. You must find out why the remaining buses have not come in yet.” When the host of The Big Issue, Umaru Sanda Amadu probed further, the MP said he can provide the parliamentary report on his claims. “If you go on and begin to interrogate those buses, you will find out that the branding is chicken feed.
I am saying that go and find out how come $40 million imports 200 buses, if work out the difference, [it will mean that] one Chinese bus comes up to a cost of 200,000 dollars. I think it is ridiculous,” he added.
Contract for Ghc3.6m bus branding just one Meanwhile, it has emerged that the contract agreement between Government and the Smarttys Management for the branding of 116 MMT buses, that cost the tax payer Ghc3.6 million was only one page.
In the one-page document, it emerged that among several flaws in the contract, the then Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor, who resigned after the scandal broke out, did not have her signature on the contract.