The Accra Sky Train Project payment of $2 million to a Mauritius-based company, Africa Investment Holdings Ltd, without legislative authorisation or the necessary public procurement clearances has drawn harsh criticism from the minority caucus in parliament.
The Caucus claims that the government has also contributed over $20 million in equity to the Accra City Pullman Hotel project even though there hasn’t been any construction for over two years.
The Opposition Chief Whip, Government Agbodza, attacked the administration in a press conference with media for what he called careless public spending and requested a probe into such losses.
He raised concerns about the procedures followed before the payment was authorised in this way.
“Before the company even started feasibility studies, someone in government had decided to pay $2 million to this entity and somewhere this year, Joe Ghartey said he has never said the government was going to fund the sky train project, and I am not sure he was reading what he had written because what was the $2 million meant for?”
“The Auditor General report said the company didn’t have the license to operate the system that it wanted to operate and so the question is what was the reason for the government to give the company the money and who gave the directive for the payment?”
“It was wrong to take any decision to pay that money and so who authorized the payment in terms of the so-called feasibility and which normal entity pays out $2 million for a feasibility study before the project is determined whether it is bankable and so these things only happen when there is organized crime. When people are careless and reckless, and I think the minimum the Auditor General can do is to call for a refund,” Mr Agbodza added.
