In the latest exposé raising concerns about financial mismanagement and corruption, opposition Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has released documents seized from Ghana’s Ministry of Finance revealing a scandal surrounding payments of over $34.9 million approved by former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta just five days before he left office.
He said the money was meant to buy spare parts for 307 ambulances distributed by the government under the “one district, one ambulance” scheme.
According to the documents, Ofori-Atta approved the huge amount to be paid to Service Ghana Auto Group Limited on February 9, 2024. On the same day, he instructed the Auditor-General to release $10 million (120,711,000 Ghana cedis), which Ablakwa said was promptly processed and received by the company on February 23, 2024.
An analysis of the deals showed the cost of spare parts per ambulance came to $113,695.456, more than what would be required for many new, fully equipped ambulances, according to lawmakers.
He said the question arises as to why such an exorbitant expense was incurred when a new ambulance could have been purchased for the same amount or less.
“In his final shocking act of dastardly conduct, Ken Ofori-Atta in a letter dated February 9, 2024, approved the payment of a staggering sum of US$34,904,505.00 to the discredited Service Ghana Auto Group Limited for the procurement of spare parts for 307 ambulances purchased by government in 2019.
“On the same 9th February 2024, the busy Minister of Finance instructed the Auditor General to disburse US$10 million equivalent to 120,711,000 cedis.
“My thorough tracing of this transaction confirms that the Comptroller and Auditor General processed and disbursed the amount of 120,711,000 cedis on 23rd February 2024 and promptly credited the account of Service Ghana Auto Group Limited,” Ablakwa wrote.
“Analysis of this alleged exorbitant deal for spare parts for 307 ambulances worth $34,904,505 actually equates to $113,695,456 per ambulance,” he added.
“Instructively, cheques from a number of Mercedes-Benz ambulance dealers around the world show that $113,695,456 far exceeds the value of a significant number of new, modern, fully equipped ambulances.”
Further investigations, according to Ablakwa, revealed that Service Ghana Auto Group Limited was incorporated on April 24, 2020, more than a year after President Akufo-Addo launched the rollout of 307 ambulances in January 2019. He said the company was awarded the contract without a competitive bidding process, raising allegations of favouritism and lack of due diligence.
He noted that Service Ghana Auto Group Limited has already received 115,342,573 cedis for the servicing of the ambulances between 2020 and 2023, and the company is expected to earn a total of 653 million cedis from the deal, more than double the cost of the ambulances purchased in 2019.
He said the contract in question was awarded to Service Auto despite a special audit by the Auditor General which had flagged several issues including overcharging, misappropriation of National Ambulance Service personnel for maintenance, non-compliance with maintenance schedules and an adverse memorandum of understanding with the National Ambulance Service.
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In a publication, the lawmaker announced his plans to formally petition the Special Prosecutor’s Office to open a criminal investigation into the matter, stressing the need to punish those responsible and protect public funds from further theft.
“I will be formally petitioning the Office of Special Counsel this week to open a criminal investigation into this immoral affair,” he said.
Read the full statement from the MP below:
The $34.9 million (GHS538 million) ambulance scandal and how Service Ghana Auto Group Limited made GHS653 million through inflated invoices
Indisputable documents intercepted from the Ghanaian Ministry of Finance have revealed yet another huge scandal.
Five days before he leaves the Ministry of Finance in President Akufo-Addo’s Valentine’s Day lame-duck reshuffle, Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta decided to teach us another haunting and bitter lesson, perhaps in his own unique way, by leaving with a vengeance following the constant and relentless calls from the aggrieved Ghanaian people for his dismissal.
In a grand “plunder politics” conspiracy with the outgoing Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu, also affected by the Cabinet reshuffle, the two worst performing ministers are determined to cause further economic damage. From the Sputnik V scandal, the mismanagement of the multi-billion dollar coronavirus fund, directly benefiting from accumulated loans and now Ghana’s bankruptcy, it seems the two outgoing miserable ministers did not realise they had already wreaked such havoc that they would have to give us mercy.
In his final shocking act of dastardly conduct, Ken Ofori-Atta in a letter dated February 9, 2024, approved the payment of a whopping sum of US$34,904,505.00 to the discredited Service Ghana Auto Group Limited for the procurement of spare parts for 307 ambulances purchased by government in 2019.
Also on February 9, 2024, the busy Minister of Finance instructed the Auditor General to disburse US$10 million, equivalent to 120,711,000 cedis.
My flawless tracking of this transaction confirms that the Auditor-General processed and released the amount of GHS120,711,000.00 on 23rd February 2024 and it was promptly credited to the account of Service Ghana Auto Group Limited.
Analysis of this suspicious exorbitant transaction worth US$34,904,505.00 for spare parts for 307 ambulances actually equates to US$113,695.456.00 per ambulance.
Instructively, checks from a number of Mercedes-Benz ambulance dealers around the world show that $113,695,456 far exceeds the value of a significant number of modern, fully equipped new ambulances.
Why enter into a rip-off and unfair special contract of $113,695,456 just for spare parts when you can buy a state-of-the-art, fully equipped Mercedes-Benz ambulance for the same amount, or even less?
Where has the value of money and love of country gone?
Further scrutiny by Parliament revealed that Service Ghana Auto Group Limited was incorporated on April 24, 2020.
As such, Service Ghana Auto Group Limited was established more than a year after the 307 new ambulances were commissioned by President Akufo-Addo on January 28, 2019.
Typical of the way this incurably corrupt government operates, the company was handpicked without a competitive procurement process.
Moreover, the government appears not to have conducted sufficient due diligence on the company’s directors, a point I will discuss in more detail later.
More thorough parliamentary scrutiny through the GIFMIS assessment also established that even prior to this scandalous $34.9 million Ken Ofori-Atta/Agyemang Manu farewell package, Services Ghana Auto Group Limited had received a massive payment of 115,342,573 Ghana cedis between 2020 and 2023 for shoddy maintenance of ambulances.
This means that so far, Service Ghana Auto Group Limited alone has made a whopping GHS653 million from these ambulances – more than double what the ambulances cost them in 2019. (The cost of the 307 ambulances in 2019 was US$54 million, at current exchange rates.)
One wonders whether the procurement of ambulances by the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia administration was to save lives or as an unlimited cash cow for corrupt politicians and their collaborators.
Even more depressing, the special audit by the Auditor General titled “Performance Audit Report of the Auditor General on Fleet Management of the National Ambulance Service” released on 25th May 2022 made the following highly damning conclusions about Service Ghana Auto Group Limited:
I) Service Ghana Auto Group Limited inflated its invoices.
II) Service Ghana Auto Group Limited often used staff from the National Ambulance Service for maintenance, even though all payments were made to the company.
III) Service Ghana Auto Group Limited has continuously violated maintenance schedules and procedures;
IV) The MoU between Service Ghana Auto Group Limited and the National Ambulance Service was not in the interest of the National Ambulance Service.
How can a government that claims to care about safeguarding public funds be aware of this damning audit report and yet continue to award a bigger contract worth a further US$34.9 million (GHS538 million) when Ghana has not received value for money after paying GHS115 million to Services Ghana Auto Group Limited?
It is also worth remembering that this is the same company that was exposed a few years ago in a video where an ambulance sent for repairs was used by unscrupulous staff to transport cement (see attached the pathetic apology they issued at the time).
Who would have expected that a government that is doing everything in its power to ensure that Minority Leader Dr Ato Forson is convicted of causing financial loss of €2.37 million in the infamous ambulance trial would then recklessly, thoughtlessly and criminally cause actual financial loss of over $34.9 million through another ambulance deal?
I’m definitely pregnant tomorrow.
This week, I will be formally petitioning the Office of Special Counsel to open a criminal investigation into this immoral act.
Creating, plundering and sharing stinky stuff will be defeated without fear!
For God and country.
Ghana first.
Georgia/Sea
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