The minority NDC group in Parliament has warned government to ensure that the Ministry of Defence and the Ghana Armed Forces comply with a signed contract for the supply of four helicopters by a UK based company, Wellfind Limited. The group says the failure to comply with the terms of agreement valued at 19 million dollars, would cause the government and the nation a great deal of embarrassment.
A statement signed by the Minority Chief Whip, Doe Adjaho said the minority’s monitoring the use of a 50 million dollar loan for the UN Peace Keeping from the Barclays Bank by Defence Ministry has revealed that the Minister of Defence, Dr Addo Kufuor suspended the contract between his ministry and the UK based company for the procurement of the helicopters.
The statement accused the Defence Ministry of entering into negotiations with a Russian company, Rosoboron Export, for the supply of the helicopters.
The statement says the decision by the Defence Ministry to suspend the contract with Wellfind runs contrary to well known principles of transparency, accountability and due process and it makes nonsense of the NPP government’s slogan of zero tolerance for corruption.
But the Defence Ministry has denied signing a contract or making any payment to a Russian company for the supply of four transport helicopters to the Ghana Armed Forces.
A statement signed by the Defence Ministry’s Chief Director, F.O Mpare said the due process of the law was pursued by briefing the Armed Forces Council on the transactions concerning the procurement of the four helicopters. It says the Attorney General was consulted besides further due diligence to ensure that the Defence Ministry does not cause financial loss to the state.
According to the Defence Ministry, an agreement was entered into with M/S Wellfind with the understanding that it had concluded arrangements with Kazan Helicopters of the Russian Federation for the supply of the helicopters. However, Kazan informed the ministry that another Russian company Rosoboron Export is the exclusive state enterprise for the supply of products and services for helicopters produced by Kazan.
The ministry says it sought the advise of the Attorney General on the matter in order to resolve it without prejudice to its obligation to Wellfind. Wellfind was subsequently asked to produce written evidence from Kazan helicopters confirming that it had the authority to supply the helicopters, tools and training of Ghana Air Force personnel under the contract.
And in the pursuit of further due diligence, the statement says the contract with Wellfind Ltd was suspended to ascertain Kazan’s authority in the transaction. The Ministry of Finance was also advised to freeze action on any payment due Wellfind Ltd.
The statement says Wellfind Ltd has been offered the opportunity to indicate whether they can meet their obligations under the terms of the contract within a specified time frame. But it insists that guided by the policy of transparency, no contract has been signed with Rosoboron Export of Russia nor has any payment been made for the four helicopters.
