The woes of the beleaguered Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Charlotte Osei, do not appear to be over, as an allegation of an award of contract far in excess of the approved amount has surfaced.
She allegedly awarded contracts for the construction of three EC regional offices and 100 Pre-FAB offices in some districts to accommodate staff, equipment and election materials at the cost of $14 million.
However, it is emerging that the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) granted only $7.5 million for the commission in respect of the projects, which had been done through restricted tendering.
Raging Issues
Currently, the EC boss and her two deputies – Amadu Sulley in-charge of Operations and Georgina Opoku-Amankwa, who is in-charge of Corporate Services – have been trading accusations and counter accusations since a petition was sent to the presidency by unnamed staff of the commission for the impeachment of Mrs Osei.
Another petition has roped in the two deputies over allegations against them, and a committee to be set up by the Chief Justice is expected to investigate the three – including Mrs Osei.
In the initial petition, Mrs. Charlotte Osei has been accused of “engaging in cronyism by awarding contracts to the tune of 14,310,961 United States Dollars to her cronies for the construction of Pre-fabricated District offices without recourse to the Commission.”
However, the EC boss said she got approval from the PPA.
EC Letter
But documents available to DAILY GUIDE showed that the EC boss wrote to the PPA for restricted tender approval on July 21, 2016 and listed five companies – Solar Eco Limited, Clicotech Limited, Remscon Limited, Business Pros Limited and Cads Contract & Services Limited – as the contractors for the projects.
In the said letter with reference C/EC/PROC/01/SF.24/V.3/11, the EC boss had stated that the EC staff in the affected areas lacked the needed infrastructure to work effectively, posing security, political and other related threats to their smooth operations and needed those facilities without delay ahead of the 2016 elections.
PPA’s Reply
The PPA, through its then Chief Executive Officer, Samuel Sallas-Mensah, in a letter with reference PPA/CEO/08/1851/16, granted the approval for the EC to use $7,500,000 for the projects.
Curiously, after the PPA had approved $7,500,000 for the EC on the entire projects, the contracts were rather signed later on December 19, 2016 – when the general elections were over.
There is no indication yet that Mrs Osei went back to the PPA for further approval when the contract sum scaled up from $7,500,000.00 to $14,311,002.53 million.
Main Contractors
Per the documents available to DAILY GUIDE, only two out of the five companies presented to the PPA by the commission for the restricted tendering were given the contracts and the agreements were all signed on December 19, last year.
The first company, Cads Contract & Services Limited, got $2,447,114.80 contract for the construction of Pre-fad offices in Lot 3 in the Greater Accra Region (3), Central (9) and Western (7), as well as another for $3,204,402.14 in Lot 4 in the Volta (6) and the Eastern Regions (17).
For Clicotech Limited, a contract worth $4,278,340.61 was awarded for the construction of Pre-fab offices in Lot 1 in the Upper West (7), Upper East (10) and Northern Region (12), as well as another $4,181,104.98 in Lot 2 in the Brong-Ahafo Region (17) and Ashanti Region (12).
It is not clear if the contracts have been executed.
The contracts form part of the allegations that have forced the staff to call for the impeachment of the EC boss.
Petitioners’ Claim
It would be recalled that in the original petition against Madam Charlotte Osei, the petitioners had averred that “the value of these contracts is in excess of the approved threshold by the Public Procurement Authority,” adding, “One of the Contractors by name Messrs Contracts & Cads Limited is related to Mrs. Charlotte Osei.
“Upon receipt of advance mobilization under the approval of the chairperson, the company has failed to meet the contract terms; the company has requested for additional payment, which the chairperson has approved.” they claimed and added, “The Director of Finance has stopped the payment of this request. This accounts for one of the reasons of the Chairperson’s disaffection for the Director of Finance.”
Source: Daily Guide
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fine woman with leadership issues. her posture alone speaks volumes about her. hmmmm
How much did you sell your common sense, conscience and ethics for, if you have one
Massa ; make NO MISTAKE OOOOOOO !!!!!that in today's Ghana women are just evil minded like the men in responsible positions ; NEVER TRUST A WOMAN WHEN YOU CAN AVOID THEM BECAUSE THEY ARE AS DEADLY AS THE RATTLE SNAKE ;INTERGRITY MINE FUT !!!!!! they are even more toxic in fraud than their men folks ; who told you these highly educated women in positions in Ghana are 'stillers' free and not fraudulently toxic and will not manipulate anything for their selfish in order to still from the state ;they over-invoice and still for themselves and family ; most of the women in responsible position are engaged in somekind of fraud and this Mrs Osei is NO exception ; do you remember this ladies called ; Mrs Lamptey; Betty Mould ; Dzifa Attivor ; Miss Hammah and others ; the point is that this does not exclude these many women folks appointed by Nana Addo in the NPP government ; these women are just as thiffs and will still from the state like the men ; they play fast and lose with their bodies to get what they want ; Mrs Osei has no merit ; she got the job through foul means and her objective to retain Jon Mahama but it failed ; she virtually given care blach to the EC office by Jon Mahama because had Jon Mahama won nobody would hear these stories ; WOMEN ARE WORSE THAT MEN WHEN IT COMES TO STILLING !!!!!!
Look at these Asante Akyem D00gs
woman of integrity my assssssssss. She is going to be sackkked in a disggraceful manner. She is just prolonging her own humiliation and suffering. She was never fit for the job as kennedy agyapong said, she used backdoor bedmatics to get it. She is now facing the shittttstorm that she deserves. She can choose. Jump or be pushed!!! Choose one quickly. Because we dont have patience for deaddd goattt's edddiotic appointees!!!!! CHANGE IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!
@ Nana,what do you mean by woman of integrity. If she is found to have committed the offences why won't she be replaced. We are talking about law and you are talking about it won't work.It's about the law and nothing else.
ALL PLANS,MANEUVERING,AND SCHEMES TO GET THIS EC CHAIR OUT OF OFFICE WON'T WASH. FORGET IT AND CONCENTRATE ON BETTER THINGS. THE WOMAN IS A WOMAN OF HIGH INTEGRITY AND IF HER EFFORTS TO MAKE SURE CORRUPT PRACTICES AT THE EC ARE STOPPED SHOULD BE HANDLED THIS WAY, THEN OUR EFFORTS AT FIGHTING CORRUPTION IS MEANINGLESS. INSTEAD OF YOU TO DO PROPER INVESTIGATIVE WORK AND COME OUT WITH THE TRUTH,YOU LAZILY SIT IN YOUR OFFICES AND SUPPORTING THOSE WHO RATHER DO WRONG AND THROWING DUST INTO THE EYES OF THE PUBLIC.
charlotte - bottoooom power - you like trouble paaaa. You rebranded EC only to depict it as a personal loooot and chop institution for yourself eh? You have to be ashamed of yourself. You will see what we will do to you in the court of public opinion.
eeeeeeiiii. na Ghana money people de chop like that????. hmmmmm, when poverty is eating into peoples homes. school fees can not be paid not talking about 2 triangle meals a day. some villages don't have structures we will call schools. Hearing such gigantuan moneys mentioned makes one shiver in the bone. "Where hath thou oh special prosecutor?"".. Please come quickly and executive your job. We are waiting. I hope Ghanaians would not shed tears when the axe falls.
@CONCERNED EC STAFF. Are you serious with your assertion about the EC Chair? How can Mrs Osei be a WOMAN OF HIGH INTEGRITY? Are you really serious? The woman's body language, actions and inaction, the preparations she made to face the parliamentarians, her performance there and her inability to respond to elementary questions about the commission she is chairing cannot come from a WOMAN OF INTEGRITY! We have seen women Pro Vice Chancellors, Chief Justice, Attorney generals, Council of State and so on and none of them had any humility and decorum problem. However, same cannot be said about Mrs Osei. If Mrs. Osei is the only 'angel' at the commission then it will be better to leave those 'devils' there and go to find where her fellow 'angels' reside and preside over them. The allegations leveled against her are not child's play so lets leave the outfits concerned to do justice to it, which is what the President has started by referring those petitions to the appropriate quarters.