Contract Inflation: Akufo-Addo repeating old propaganda – Fuseini

Former Minister for Roads and Highways Inusah Fuseini says President Akufo-Addo is repeating old propaganda with his claim that the Mahama administration inflated contracts when the NDC was in power.

President Akufo-Addo in his media encounter Wednesday accused the erstwhile Mahama administration of inflating contracts and in some cases keeping records of nonexisting contracts on the accounts sheet of the state.

“You’ll recall that as part of the election campaign, we said part of the reasons for the difficulties with the economy was the sole-sourcing of procurement by government.

“In 2017, our first year in government, 394 sole-sourcing requests were made out of which 223, that is 56.6 per cent were approved and 171 which is 43.6 per cent were rejected. There were 346 requests for restricted tenders and 167 which is 48 per cent were approved and 179 which is 52 per cent were rejected. The savings made over the year as a result amounted to GHS145million.

“As my old mathematics teacher used to say, you cannot argue with figures and such figure surely provides the incentives to open up government procurement.

“This shows the credibility of our criticism that so much of contracts awarded in the Mahama era were inflated and in some cases nonexistent,” the President said.

But speaking to Starr News, Mr. Fuseini said: “I am not surprised, I just think what the president has done is to Regurgitate the old and decrepit propaganda that was used when they were campaigning by saying that the Mahama administration inflated contracts”.