GHA Axle Load Tender Caged

…As Registrar-General Department Can’t Provide Report on SGS Ghana Ltd

THE fate of bidders in the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) Tender Axle Load Tender still dangles in a balance despite moves to resolve the controversy surrounding the award of about four of the 16 lots to SGS Ghana Limited, a foreign company, to manage for the next two years.

SGS Ghana Limited, which is an International Inspection Destination company, provides inspection, testing, certification and verification services to ensure that products, services and systems meet quality, safety and performance standards.

Mr. Michael Abieteh Abbey, acting Chief Executive of GHA had been directed to write to the Registrar-General Department (RGD) to do a background checks on SGS Ghana Limited so as to ascertain who the Directors to resolve the hullaballoo concerning the manipulation by some officials of GHA who want to give the management contract of all the 16 lots to SGS Ghana Limited even though the work was not meant for foreign companies.

The directive from powers that be follows our publication to expose the scheme to award all the stations to SGS Ghana Limited, which had repeated the same personnel in all their tender documents.

Some insiders had alleged that some officials had been influenced by SGS Limited, and for that matter, were dancing to the tune of SGS, who were going all length to ensure that even if that SGS Limited is not awarded all the lots across the country, it should get at least more than one station.

Our investigations revealed that notwithstanding the public outcry about the manipulation, SGS Limited have used their stronger arms to hook four axle load control stations, a situation that is contrary to GHA’s advertisement calling for ‘Request For Proposals’ for interested firms to bid for the stations, which says that a firm can win one lot only.

It has been exposed that SGS is likely to be awarded four lots, which are located at Doboro near Nsawam, Boankra and Asokwa in the Ashanti region, and Jema near Kintampo in the Brong Ahafo Region.

But some analysts argue that should SGS be considered at all, it should not be given more than one lot because it would make the bribery situation more endemic, and would have defeat the underlying principle behind engaging private entities to manage the weighbridges.

The paper has gathered that more than a month when the GHA boss wrote to the RGD, the Department is yet to furnish the Authority with the report as SGS information is said to be in the ‘old system,’ which is reported to be down for some time now, bringing work at the RGD to a standstill.

Our checks at the RGD revealed that the files of SGS could not be traced because the information on the company is in the ‘old system’ and what is worrying is that the ‘system’ is reported to be down.

Signals picked by this reporter is that there might be a conspiracy to cover up for SGS because the report on the company might not be favourable and it is for this reason that the Authority is not getting the report on SGS, and the delay in announcing to bidders who participated in the tender almost a year ago is a disturbing situation.

On Tuesday, April 30, 2013, the Ghanaian Times carried an advertisement by the Ministry of Roads and Highways - Ghana Highway Authority calling for Request for Proposals on Private Management of 16 GHA Weighbridge Stations. It stated categorically that “this request for Proposal (RFP) is open to eligible local firms with the requisite experience in the management services for axle load stations.”

The weighbridge stations constructed across the country to ensure that heavy duty trucks keep to the permissible axle load limits prescribed under the Road Traffic Regulations, 2012 L.I. 2180, are Tema Motorway, Afienya, Mim, Akatsi, Boankra, Auoyeboah, Akom, Asokwa, Elmina, Agona Junction, Bogoso, Sefwi Bekwai, Yapei, Bolgatanga, Doboro and Jema.

More than 70 private companies were said to have taken part in a national competitive bidding to secure the management contract from GHA to manage the operations of the axle load control stations.

The advertisement stated categorically that “eligible firms may submit proposals for one or more lots, but award of contract is limited to one (1) lot, only, and that, proposals must be delivered on or before 10:00 hours GMT, on May 30, 2013, where technical proposals will be opened immediately thereafter, in the presence of the firms representatives who choose to attend.”

It was reported earlier that there were some GHA top officials who were influencing the tender process to ensure that SGS Ghana Limited won all the weighbridges at all cost for their selfish gains, at the expense of the local ones that had so far proven to have applied the rules governing the operations of the bridges to the letter.

What is intriguing is that there were three different tender committees constituted and dissolved on the axle load tender because of the manipulations, with the fourth committee finally working on the tender, which has finished its work and forwarded to the Ministerial Tender Review Board.