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The Member of Parliament (MP) for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, has petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) to investigate what he believes to be corruption in the construction of the new Bank of Ghana (BOG) head office.
In a petition to the OSP, which was sighted by GhanaWeb, the MP accused officials of Ghana’s central bank of engaging in acts of corruption in the procurement processes for the new headquarters.
He stated that the accused persons, who must be investigated thoroughly by the OSP, include the Governor of the BoG, Dr Ernest Addison; the 1st Deputy Governor, Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari; the 2nd Deputy Governor, Elsie Addo Awadzi as well as members of the board of the bank.
According to him, the leadership of the BoG has not been able to explain how the cost of the construction of the new head office increased from US$121.8 million to nearly US$222.8 million.
“I hereby make a formal complaint to your office to investigate what I believe to be a case of corruption in the procurement of the new headquarters building of the Bank of Ghana at Ridge in Accra. The suspects in this case include the Governor and Deputy Governors of the Bank of Ghana, namely: Dr Emest Addison (Governor), Dr Maxwell Opoku-Afari (1 Deputy Governor) and Mrs Elsie Addo Awadzi (2d Deputy Governor), Members of the Board of Directors should also be investigated.
“The other suspect is the Chief Executive Officer of Messrs. Goldkey Properties Ltd, who are the contractors. The project consultants supervising the work should also be investigated. In spite of a written request to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana under the Right to Information Act, the Governor and his team have not been able to explain to me how there was a price escalation from USD 121,807,8517.94 to USD 222,799,760.55 (about 84%) when the scope of work increased from 73,000 square meters to about 107,737 square meters (36.9%),” parts of the petition, which is dated October 30, 2023, reads.
Mahama Ayariga argued that the OSP has the jurisdiction to investigate the matter, adding that he is ready to assist the investigation by helping with the facts he has come across.
By:www.ghanaweb.com
