Flagstaff House orders 2017 Presidential diaries

Even though it is not certain that President John Mahama and the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) would be in power after the general elections slated for December 7, 2016, the Office of the President has started placing orders for a presidential diary for the year 2017.

A contract for the printing job has already been awarded to JIT Services Limited, a company owned by the failed National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary aspirant for the Akan Constituency in the Volta Region, Godwin Quilliams Agbenyadzi.

It was the same company that was contracted to print the 2016 edition of the presidential diary which was said to have eaten into state funds by a gargantuan $10 million.

The 2017 diary is expected to be a ‘Special Edition’ as stated by the company because according to it, “It will catalogue the achievements of H.E. John Dramani Mahama.”

The contract, dated June 20, 2016, signed by the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah, and addressed to the JIT Services Limited and copied to the secretary to the president and the Minister of Communications – a copy of which has been sighted by DAILY GUIDE – states, “The Office of the President, as part of its annual practice, has awarded the right to JIT Services to publish next year’s [2017] Presidential Diary for the Government of Ghana.”

Attached to that letter was a ‘Letter of mandate’ introducing JIT Services ‘to whom it may concern’ for organizations to provide the company with the necessary recognition and support they would require in the execution of their mandate under the agreement.

That was in view of the fact that the company is supposed to bear the full cost of publication of the diary and have the exclusive right to seek for sponsorship.

Subsequently, management of JIT Services, with NDC’s Godwin Quilliams as its Managing Director, also sent proposals to various companies asking them to advertise in the diary.

The sponsorship comes in two packages – premium and non-premium.

In the case of the premium, advertisers are supposed to pay a whopping $10,000 – the equivalent of GH¢39,400.00 – to have a full page advertising space at strategic places called premium pages, with sponsors who would take more than a page entitled to a discount at a negotiable price.

Previous contributors to the diary were mostly Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and government parastatals or corporations which paid exorbitantly to show their loyalty to the government.

These spaces in the diary are positions close to a personality (e.g. the president, vice president) an event (e.g. commissioning of a project) or position of the page (e.g. first page of the diary).

Organizers that would advertise in this category would be given 30 copies of the diary with 15 names provided for embossment.

In the second category of sponsorship package [non-premium], organizations are expected to pay not less than $8,000.00 – the equivalent GH¢31,520.00 – to have page advert at any other page(s) other than the premium at which a sponsor taking more than a page shall also be entitled to a discount at a negotiable price.

In addition, the organization would also be given 20 copies of the diary with 10 names provided for embossment.

But some have questioned the prudence in the decision of placing orders for the procurement of these diaries, considering the fact that power could change hands in an election year.