The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) Chairman, Kofi Bosompem Osafo-Marfo, has denied allegations by former National Chairman of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Freddie Blay, that SSNIT rejected a $200 million bid by his son’s company to acquire a 60% stake in a hotel.
According to Osafo-Marfo, Spartan Ives’ proposal failed to get past the first stage of the bidding process.
Updating the media on the operation of the State Pension Fund, the Director General explained that the envelopes containing the financial proposals had not been opened or evaluated.
“Freddie Bray alleges that his son’s company, Spartan Ives, made a bid of between $150 million and $200 million which was rejected by SSNIT, but this cannot be substantiated.”
“The process is that it first gets marked by an assessment committee and is graded. Once it’s graded and meets a passing grade, we evaluate the financial proposal. That’s the process and that’s what we’re required to do by law.”
“And that’s exactly what we did. Spartan Ives didn’t make it past the evaluation stage. Their technical proposal was weak and fell below the required 50% and their financial proposal wasn’t even evaluated. The envelope wasn’t even opened and was returned to them, which is what is required by law.”
“It is therefore not accurate to say that SSNIT received an offer of between $150 million and $200 million and turned it down because no offer was ever made and the offer document has never been opened,” he stressed.
The clarification came after the Chairman of the Board of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Freddie Blay, revealed that his son was interested in buying SSNIT’s shares in some hotels advertised for 2022.
In an interview with TV3 on June 24, 2024, the former NPP National Chairman said his son had made a bid of over $200 million for about seven SSNIT hotels but it was not accepted.
Bray did not specify the currency in which his son’s bid was made, but multiple reports said the bid was made in US dollars ($).
“My son is about 33, 34 years old. He’s grown up and he’s in the business. I won’t answer questions on his behalf. But that aside, if you’re interested, my son is in the hospitality business as well as the tourism business.”
“SSNIT offered to sell the hotels. He wanted a bulk sale and my son’s company, Spartan (Ives SSA), applied along with about a dozen other companies. He was backed by a syndicate of banks and well-known hotel chains and offered to buy them for more than $150 million to $200 million,” he said.
“SSNIT decided to give it to another company and not to my son’s company,” the former chairman added.
However, this claim has been denied by SSNIT.
meanwhile, Snit The company said a decision to sell its 60 percent stake in the four hotels remains pending.
The trust said it had called off negotiations to sell a 60% stake in the hotel to Rock City Hotels, owned by Minister of Food and Agriculture Brian Acheapong.
This is in line with instructions from the National Pension Regulatory Authority (NPRA), it added.
Disclaimer: The views, comments, opinions, contributions and statements made by readers and contributors on this platform do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Multimedia Group Limited.