Yamoa Ponko In �9.4bn Bulldozer Scandal

The Ejisu-Juaben Municipal Assembly headed by Kwaku Afrifa Yamoa Ponko has been accused of breaching the Public Procurement Law (Act 663, 2003) in the purchase of bulldozer and pay loader. Management of the Assembly purchased the two heavy-duty machines without referring the transaction to Ministerial and Regional Tender Review Board (MRTRB) for evaluation. According to an internal audit report, there was no evaluation report to authenticate the purchase of the bulldozer and pay loader contrary to the Procurement Act, which requires that goods or assets worth GH�100,000 (�1billion) and above should be referred to the MRTRB. The machines were said to have been procured from JA Plant Pool, a subsidiary of Zoomlion Ghana Limited. The report revealed that the suppliers/contractors were not asked to submit their proposal under the competitive tendering. They were also not evaluated and approved by the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) or board under the single-source procurement. Even though the law requires that no negotiation should take place between the procurement entity and a supplier or contractor prior to evaluation of bids, the audit report indicated that negotiations were carried out between the Assembly and the supplier without going through MRTRB. The audit said there were no receipts and invoices to buttress the purchase of the bulldozer and pay loader. According to the report, the only document available was a contract agreement which was not signed by the parties. A review of the minutes of the general assembly of the third ordinary meeting of the second session of the sixth Assembly held on Thursday December 10, 2012 showed that two heavy-duty machines were purchased at the cost of GH�940,000 (�9.4 billion). The purchase of the bulldozer and pay loader, the report pointed out, was not included in the budget of the Assembly and did not form part of the annual action plan for machines. Part IV Section 20 of the Financial Memoranda stipulates that �the basic authority for expenditure is the approval of the Assembly�s Annual Estimates under section 87 of the Local Government Act�� The audit report said no apparent reason was ascribed to the violation of the provisions. Management of the Ejisu-Juaben Municipal Assembly has been advised to stop using the two machines with immediate effect and refer the matter to the Regional and Sector Ministers and Regional Render Board for perusal. The report revealed that payment voucher with number 1532438 which covered the payment of GH�18,000 to B-Mobile company for rehabilitation of farm trucks of selected communities, was not approved by MCE. The report revealed that the payment voucher was not submitted for pre-audit as required by the regulations. Five percent tax was not deducted as required as well as the 10 percent retention. There was also no monitoring report to legitimize the payment.