The Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu has revealed that his office has commenced investigations into the alleged shady deals at the Metro Mass Transit Limited (MMT)
He subsequently, cautioned the board of the MMT not to tamper with evidence as his office “probes the alleged corrupt practices involving the suspended Managing Director of the company, Bennet Aboagye”.
In a letter to the Board of the MMT, intercepted by Today, Mr. Amidu said, there would be a criminal investigation into the matter following a similar petition presented to his office.
“While Metro Mass Transit Ltd is at liberty to invoke its administrative procedures to address purely administrative infractions of its regulations, care ought to be taken in that, the process does not compromise the integrity of the eventual criminal investigation to be conducted by us”, the letter signed by Martin Amidu stated.
The MMT set up a five-member committee to investigate Mr. Aboagye over the alleged ‘filthy deals’.
He was subsequently asked by the Board of MMT to proceed on leave to allow for investigations internally.
Mr. Martin Amidu in his letter said “no obstruction will be tolerated”.
“Nothing should be done that may be interpreted as calculated to interfere with any witness or witnesses or the complainant in the pending complaint. Notice also ought to be taken of the fact that any obstruction of this office from performing a function under the Act 959 may constitute an offence”, the letter added.
He also assured that the complaint “will be fairly and impartially investigated as soon as arrangements underway for the purpose are compiled.”
It will be recalled that a petition, signed by one Mr. Lawal, who is said to be the company’s Head of Security alleged that the embattled Managing Director was in collusion with some top officials of the company to secretly purchase 300 new buses and electrical products, and sell off MMT scrap buses.
The said petition, which was sighted by Today accused Mr. Aboagye and his assistant, Mr. Yiadom Kessie of openly requesting “for bribes or commission before awarding contracts to suppliers or signing cheques to pay suppliers for services they rendered.”
The petitioners said, they subsequently “planted the third ear at some strategic locations with the hope of having “firsthand information about what the MD, his assistant and some key players in this scandal do, and the revelations uncovered are mind-boggling.”
They also claimed that Mr. Aboagye tried to bribe them to the tune of about GHc60,000 to have the recordings and transcripts destroyed.
Mr. Aboagye in a shocking response admitted that he paid GHC40,000 not as a bribe to cover-up any wrongdoing, but to bait his blackmailers.
According to him, he took the decision based upon the advice of his lawyer, Dr. Amoako Tuffour, whom he had informed of the ploy by some people to tarnish his image.
Meanwhile Joy News investigations have uncovered that the state-owned Metro Mass Transit Limited lost over ¢1 million, as a result of under-valuation of more than 200 buses sold by the company.
The buses were declared “unserviceable” and as a company policy, they were supposed to be sold off as scrap.
However, it has emerged out the valuation process was compromised and this has cost the company more than one million cedis in revenue.
An auctioneer who claimed to have facilitated the sale of 18 unserviceable buses, complained that he had been shortchanged.
According to him, the buses were sold to people recommended by the Board Chair, Ahmed Arthur.
He said, Mr Arthur promised him ¢100 on each bus in addition to his auction fees.
But Mr Arthur has since denied any involvement in the sale of the buses.
In December 2016 and February 2017, the Valuation Department of the State Transport Company (STC) valued 202 buses at ¢1,397,000.
In October 2017, the Chairman of the Scrapes Committee mandated to oversee the disposal of the buses wrote to the Managing Director of Metro Mass, raising questions of inaccuracies in the valuation report.
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