Court rules against Ministry in book publishing case

Accra, Oct. 18, GNA - An Accra Fast Track High Court on Wednesday ruled that the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports did not follow the right procedure in awarding a contract worth about 28 million dollars to Macmillan Education, UK to supply books to schools. The Ministry had awarded the Company the sole right to supply books to schools throughout the country.

The Court ruled that, 'there was no transparency in the selection for the contract', saying MOES did not comply with laid down procedures.

The Court said there were a number of local publishers which the Ministry could choose from and, therefore, restrained the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) from releasing money to the Company. The Court awarded a cost of five million cedis to the Ghana Book Publishers Association (GBPA), which took the matter to court, but it declined saying, 'we will not take any money because of public interest'.

GPA filed the suit against the Ministry and two others over the 27.9 million-dollar contract awarded to Macmillan Education Limited on June 26 2005.

Others joined in the suit were Public Procurement Board (PPB) and GETfund.

GPA sought an injunction from the Court to restrain the Ministry, the PPB and the GETfund from proceeding with the 27.9 million-dollar contract awarded to Macmillan Education Limited.

The GPA further sought a declaration that the decisions by the Ministry to embark on a single source for the procurement of books for schools from Macmillan was factually and legally unwarranted since it violated the provisions of the Public Procurement Act 2003. In the Association's affidavit it stated that the Ministry entered into a contract with Macmillan Education Limited on July 2005 to supply books because the Company's prices were far lower than what had been quoted by other publishers.

It said the Ministry's attention was drawn to the need for it to secure approval from the PPB for purposes of single source procurement. The Ministry adhered to the advice and abrogated the contract with Macmillan Education on July 29, 2005.

It further stated that Macmillan Education Limited wrote to acknowledge receipt of the letter abrogating the contract and urged the Ministry to take steps to resolve the issue.

The affidavit stated that 93having abrogated the contract, the Ministry by a letter dated August 26, 2005; then sought to conduct single source procurement. Thus at the time the MOESS applied for approval, there was no subsisting contract between the Ministry and Macmillan Education Limited'.

It said the PPB gave approval for the Ministry to single source based on the premise that there was some urgency to the need for the supply of textbooks to schools for the academic year as well as the quotation of lower prices by Macmillan, compared to the prices of other publishers.

'In spite of the approval of the PPB for single source procurement from Macmillan, no new contract has been signed with Macmillan Education up to date.'

It stated that the application to the PPB for single source procurement did not state that three other publishers had submitted quotations and that the quotation of Macmillan Education Limited had been found to be the most competitive.

It said what the Ministry did was to attach three volumes of catalogue prices for similar/ alternative books from Heinemann Africa Series, Longman Reader Series and Oxford Primary Series.

The affidavit said the contract was abrogated before the application for single source procurement was made to the PPB on August 26, 2005.

It said it had evidence to prove that PPB was aware of the nullification of the contract before the Ministry applied for a single procurement.

The Defendants, however, stated that the application for single source procurement met the policy consideration requirement under the Law.

They Defendants contended that they had not violated any law and challenged GPA to prove otherwise. 18 Oct. 06