Gov’t suffocating under Mahama’s unpaid procurements – Abu Jinapor

Deputy Chief of Staff, Samuel Abdulai Jinapor is claiming that 250 Hyundai i10 vehicles bought in 2012 by the government during the administration have not been paid for.

There are no documentations covering the purchasing of these vehicles and their whereabouts is also unknown, Mr. Jinapor disclosed on the Super Morning Show on Joy FM, Wednesday, July 19, 2017.

He said the government is required to cough up Ȼ10 million to pay for the cars whose purchase were neither justified nor properly documented.

Just around the same period, the government engaged a contractor in erecting a high-security wall around the confines of the seat of government, Flagstaff House but the contractor has not been paid despite completing the project, the Deputy Chief of Staff stated.

According to him, the majority of contract works and procurements done under the office of the president of the erstwhile John Mahama administration, were not paid for at the time he exited office.

The revelations were in reaction to comments made earlier on the programme by the North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa to the effect that several statutory payments such as the GETFund, District Assemblies’ Common Fund among others, have been in arrears since President Nana Akufo-Addo and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) took over the reins of government some six months ago.

They were analysing a media encounter organized at the Flagstaff House on Tuesday by President Akufo-Addo, to mark his first six months in office as president.

Mr. Jinapor chided the former Deputy Education Minister for raising concerns about the delay by the government in releasing funds for payment of the arrears since the NDC “piled up numerous countless debts” prior to it leaving office.

“Even on my desk as Deputy Chief of Staff, I’m interrogating claims which make me sick,” Mr. Jinapor complained.

Despite these challenges, Mr. Jinapor however, said: “The Akufo-Addo government is putting strict measures in place to make sure that we don’t have a repetition of payments going into arrears”.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ablakwa is calling on authorities concerned to investigate the whereabouts of the cars and punish those who flouted the laws if found culpable.

“Let’s not create the impression that governments inherit only assets…who has said that those cars are missing, who has said that they cannot be accounted for. We all need to know where the cars are; it is an important question to ask,” Ablakwa said.

Listen to the discussion in the audio attached:

Source: Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Jerry Tsatro Mordy | Email: jerry.mordy@myjoyonline.com, Twitter: @jerrymordy