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It has emerged that the Ministry of Transport had contacted the Ministry of Finance to pay Smartys Limited far ahead of the signing of the contract with the company to brand Metro Mass buses.

It has also emerged that even before a contract with Smartys was signed for the rebranding, the company had already finished the job, indicating clearly that there had been top-level collusion and insider dealing with officials of the Ministry of transport to dupe the state.

A copy of the report of the Attorney General on the investigations into the branding affair makes damning reading and details of list of official transgressions that should leave Ghanaians hugely worried. Indeed the tragedy is still on-going, in that it was also the recommendation that every single official involved in the process should be handed over to the Economic and Organized Crime Agency (EOCO) for investigations and prosecution. That aspect of the recommendation has hit a dead wall, at a time that President John Mahama is crowing about fighting corruption.

The report that is available to this newspaper should leave many Ghanaians cold.

For instance, the report reveals that the payment of the sum of GHC3,649,044.75 to Smartys for rebranding of the buses was initiated by a letter from the Ministry of Transport to the Ministry of Finance dated 8th July. At that time, the Ministry had not written to Smartys for a price quotation. The letter for a quotation was written on 15th July, 2015, a clear week AFTER the Transport Ministry had written to the Finance Ministry requesting that Smartys be paid.

Strongly, the report also states that the letter to the Finance Ministry alleges that the contract had been completed. This was before a quotation had been taken from the contractor.

The letter to the Finance Ministry also predates the letter to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) seeking approval. According to the Attorney-General, on 23th July, the Finance Ministry gave approval for the payment to be put on the GIFMAS system for payment. At the time, the PPA had not given approval. Approval was to come on 29thJuly.

Stated the Attorney General, “The letters of 8th of July and 23th July referred to in the preceding paragraphs is evidence that the rebranding by Smattys was commenced and concluded even before the procurement process began. This fact has been confirmed by both Smattys and the Ministry of Transport,” said the Attorney General.

The report also show that the Attorney General sought for quotations from three other organizations that were far lower than that of smattys to do the same job. Mechanical Llyod proposed to charge GH1,700,00.00, Japan Motors put up a figure of GH1,553,276.32, and Svani Limited proposed to be paid GH1,573,500.00.

“This clearly shows that Smarttys charged and was paid more that it should have received for the service provided. This situation would not have arisen if proper procurement processes had been observed and a value for money audit conducted,” the Attorney General lamented.

The Attorney General stated that Smarttys commenced and concluded the rebranding of the buses even before the procurement process was commenced and before any contract was signed.

In conclusion the Attorney General called on the Ministry of Transport to recover the sum of GH1, 949,124.26 from Smattys not later than 22nd January 2016, after which the prevailing interest rates should begin to apply.