RE: Kennedy Agyapong Hits Out At Prof Attafuah...Over NIA Contract
The National Identification Authority (NIA) has dismissed claims that it has signed a contract with the Margins Group for the printing of national identity cards.
The authority also denied media reports that its Executive Secretary, Prof Ken Attafuah has surrounded himself with members of the NDC.
NPP Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong accused Prof. Ken Attafuah on Oman FM’s evening Talk Show ‘’Boiling Point’’, Tuesday of being in bed with the NDC and allegedly signing a contract with the Margins Group.
He said this while registering his displeasure about how the National Identification Authority was handling his application submitted for consideration in the printing of national identity cards.
"Prof Attafuah has surrounded himself with NDC functionaries who were advising him that he [Ken] was going to sub-contract to some Indians should he get the nod and that, they should rather go for the other deal, which was wholly Ghanaian," Mr Agyepong said.
President Akufo-Addo appointed criminologist, Prof. Ken Agyeman Attafuah as the acting Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA).
The appointment is among the few undertaken by the president to change the leadership of most government institutions following his assumption of office.
Below is the full statement
ALLEGATIONS MADE AGAINST THE EXECUTIVE THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF NIA ON BOILING POINT PROGRAMME
(Accra 17 March 2017) We are informed of allegations made on Oman FM’s evening Talk Show “Boiling Point” on Tuesday, March 13, 2017 to the effect that the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA), Prof. Ken Attafuah has surrounded himself with members of the NDC and has signed a contract with the Margins Group.
We would like to indicate that no such contract has been awarded to any entity by the NIA nor by its Executive Secretary. The Government, through the Office of the Vice-President, has set up four committees (Technical, Legal, Financial and Oversight) to advice on how to revive the National Identification Authority in order to achieve an effective National Identification System (NIS) within one year.
The Technical Committee comprised of experts from stakeholder institutions in the Public Service of Ghana and the Office of the Vice-President, has submitted its report to the Presidency.
The Government is yet to make a decision on the way forward. The Technical Committee was constituted by the Vice-President, not the Executive Secretary of the NIA. It comprised of representatives from such agencies as Births & Death Registry, SSNIT, NHIA, DVLA, GIS, EC, NDPC, NITA and GhIPPS.
We therefore wish to inform the general public that the NIA has not issued any invitation for bids neither has it received any bids. The NIA has not awarded any contract to any person or institution and is not clothed with the power to do so.
The process of contracting a prospective vendor would be made public and in line with relevant laws of Ghana should the government decide to open up the process for competitive tendering after consideration of the report of the Technical Committee.
Finally, we wish to state that NIA is a public sector institution which offers equal employment opportunities to Ghanaians with different ethnic religious and political affiliations.
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