Edward Bawa charges GNPC to name people involved in $7.5m property purchase

Member of Parliament for Bongo Constituency, Edward Bawa has charged the Ghana National Petroleum Commission (GNPC) to provide names of the people involved in the negotiation process that lead to the purchase of the controversial $ 7.5m Global Haulage Company property.

According to him, the GNPC board did not set up a committee to lead the purchase of the said property as it claims.

In a Facebook post, the member of Parliament’s Mines and Energy committee charged GNPC to make available the reports that were evaluated by AESL and Nana Kumi and Associates for transparency

Below is the full statement

Just read the press statement issued by the GNPC on the Purchase of the Global Haulage Company (GHCL) property. A few points need to be made and some answers also needed.

1. GNPC has rented A Global Haulage property currently as their Foundation Building in Takoradi. This is different from the property the Corporation has bought from the same Global Haulage Company Limited. So let's not confuse the two. What at all is unique about the properties of this company where interestingly the MD of GNPC worked for.

2. GNPC in their statement said the total amount paid for the property was 7.5 million dollars. Perusing the memo and the Payment Authorisation Voucher making the rounds it is realised that, if u take out the deducted withholding tax of 3%, the amount paid was 7.275 million on the 29th of December 2017. And not 3 million. another 2milion to be paid 3rd of January 2018. So the total cost is 9.5 million dollars.

3. The statement claimed that the Board of Directors set up a committee comprising some of its members and management to identify and negotiate the Purchase of a suitable property.

QUESTION: Who are the members of this committee?

4. The statement further stated that the property offered by GHCL was selected for purchase after reviewing other offers.

QUESTION: can GNPC tell us which other offers were reviewed.

5. If we look at the Payment Authorisation Voucher, the description of the property is 6 residential units and not 18. If we assume that the 7.5 million dollar figure given by GNPC is right and using the current exchange rate of 4.8 Ghana Cedis to a dollar, it means the property will cost 36 million Ghana cedis. Therefore each unit which is made up of 2/3 bedrooms will cost 6 million Ghana cedis. Which 2 or 3 bedroom property even in the poshest area in Accra will cost 6 million not to talk of Takoradi

6. GNPC also indicates that 2 evaluations were done by AESL and Nana Kumi and Associates.

QUESTION: in the spirit of transparency and because this issue has a huge public interest, can these reports be made public?

7. The issue of Conflict of Interest becomes even more evident considering that since Dr K.k Sarpong became the MD of GNPC, the Corporation has engaged GHCL for 2 of their properties at different times.

8.GNPC has a Housing project in Takoradi known as the Beach Road Project. This is a 13 million dollar project and it is about 85% complete. The corporation needs another 1.2 million dollars to complete. Why did K.K. Sarpong and GNPC decide to purchase another project for 9.5 million dollars which will need an additional 4 million cedis to renovate?

I think this case is far from over.