IMANI must apologise to NCA – Inside Ghana

Pressure group, Inside Ghana, has called on the founding President of Policy think tank – IMANI- Franklin Cudjoe to apologise to the National Communications Authority for “dubiously” publishing falsehood in the raging controversy regarding the Interconnect Clearing House contract.

The contract won by telecomunications company Afriwave has sparked massive controversy between IMANI and the NCA. IMANI argues that the process that led to the award of the contract was skewed to favour Afriwave. The NCA and Communications Ministry have both denied the allegation.

In a statement Monday, Inside Ghana said Mr. Cudjoe and his group are deliberately twisting facts in the matter to taint the integrity of the contract won by Afriwave.

“Franklin Cudjoe, the self-acclaimed President of Imani Ghana is dubiously putting into the public space, a purported report on the tendering process which the NCA has categorically stated is not their report in a recent press conference addressed by the Director General. This we believe should put to rest the deliberate peddling of falsehood by Imani and Franklin Cudjoe”.

Below are details of the statement

Inside Ghana is highly miffed and incensed by the fraudulent posturing of Imani Ghana’s Franklin Cudjoe to bastardise the National Communications Authority, NCA on the Interconnect Clearing House contract awarded to Afriwave Telecommunications Company Ltd.

Franklin Cudjoe, the self-acclaimed President of Imani Ghana is dubiously putting into the public space, a purported report on the tendering process which the NCA has categorically stated is not their report in a recent press conference addressed by the Director General. This we believe should put to rest the deliberate peddling of falsehood by Imani and Franklin Cudjoe.

Hearing Mr. Cudjoe this morning on Citi FM, one could clearly deduce he is doing the bidding of one of the competitors who lost out to Afriwave. It is therefore logical to conclude that Imani Ghana is on a wicked and malicious agenda to set aside a fair and just tender process to satisfy the whims and caprices of his pay paymasters.

Inside Ghana therefore finds the conduct of Franklin Cudjoe, Imani Ghana and his paymasters as scandalous and venal and ought to be treated with disdain and contempt. We are appalled by this pay-as-you-go think tank attitude, which only questions the credibility of institutions and professionals in pursuit of a set agenda. Note, this same Imani and Franklin Cudjoe in May 2014 threatened to drag the NCA to CHRAJ over purported corrupt Subah Deal. What has changed

today?

Ghanaians would recall that somewhere last year, evidence of Franklin Cudjoe and Imani Ghana engaging in an unscrupulous pay-as-you-go policy research on the ADB IPO saga where Franklin Cudjoe was alleged to have been paid GHS 20,000 to do the bidding of one party.

Subsequently evidence of payment was put out by way of a cheque issued to Imani Ghana only for Franklin Cudjoe to say it was a sponsorship money which till date no one knows what sponsorship it was.

Such offensive conduct must not be entertained as it is not only disgusting and immoral, but criminal.

We are by this release demanding a public apology from Franklin Cudjoe and Imani Ghana for their recklessness and advise them to stick to the ethos of running a policy think tank based on issues of facts and truths. Failure to do so, we would urge the National Communications Authority to commence legal action against Mr. Franklin Cudjoe and Imani Ghana for their baseless allegations and accusations to bring closure to this needless and pointless agenda.

We also wish to commend the Ministry of Communications and the NCA to adopt the one stop shop of an Interconnect Clearing House which will yield the following benefits to the state;

*To independently validate minutes and revenue from each operator

*To confirm and validate each international carrier sending incoming traffic to Ghana

*To alert Bank of Ghana on amount of forex due to incoming international traffic

* Coordinated effort in tackling SIM-Box fraud with the Mobile Network Operators by making 400,000 test calls per month vs previous total of less than 120,000 (all

Operators and monitoring company).

* Coordinated effort to curtail phone theft for most phone types except Clone Phones

Provision of independently verified Industry Data for the government of Ghana for the purpose of policy making

Thank You.

Alex Doe

(Director of Operations)