PPA indicts Auditor-General in GHC8 million car deal

The controversial Auditor-General, Daniel Domelevo seem to have stepped beyond his boundaries as he is embroiled in procurement infractions as the Public Procurement Authority has indicted him in the purchase of vehicles worth about GHC8 million.

According to a report sighted by ABC News, the Auditor General preached various parts of the procurement law in the purchase of 32 vehicles for the Audit Service.

The report indicating Mr Domelevo is to be forwarded to the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice for legal advice.

According to the PPA’ report, there is no properly established Entity Tender Committee at the Audit Service, as the committee was not set up in accordance with Schedule 1B of Act 663 which establishes the Service.

The PPA report also held that all procurements approved by the Audit Service Entity Committee are declared ‘null and void,’ as the composition of the committee did not meet the requirements.

Paragraph 4 of the covering letter from PPA on the Final Procurement Audit Report-Covering the Period January to August 2018 dated January 3rd 2019 stated that “The Board deplored the conduct of the Ghana Audit Service in breach of the Public Procurement Law and recommended referral of the Report to the Attorney-General’s Department for appropriate action”.

The report further stated that, “Again Team raised an issue of the Central Tender Review Committee’s (CTRC) approvals dated on 22/08/2018 for award of contract for supply of vehicles that have been delivered to Transport Unit of GAS (Ghana Audit Service) on 10/06/2018 which were delivered before CTRC?

The Audit Service in its response argued that “anomaly was noted after an internal review by Management and there was the need to take necessary action and hence the request to the CRTC for ratification. This was not intended as explained above and when the anomaly was detected, GAS went for the concurrent approval.

PPA did not take the response lightly as it saw the action as a serious contravention of the provisions of Act 663 as amended.

Besides, the CRTC does not grant retrospective approval or ratification of contract which has already been awarded and delivered.

ABC can authoritatively report that the procurement was done on the blind side of the Board.

This same practice was adopted for the procurement of the construction of 100 District offices of GAS. The International Competitive Tender was placed in the newspapers without the knowledge of the Board. Even the Technical and Services Committee of GAS Board were not aware. The Service has to withdraw the advertisement after becoming aware for due diligence to be conducted.