PPA probes Auditor General over GH¢7.6m cars

The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) has waded into the controversial procurement of 32 vehicles by the Audit Service.

It’s therefore conducting forensic investigations into possible breaches in the purchase of vehicles by the Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo for the Audit Service.

Information gathered by DAILY GUIDE indicates that the possible breaches of the Procurement Act by the Audit Service in purchasing the vehicles which caused the taxpayer over GH¢7.6 million have been brought to the attention of the PPA.

Sources at the PPA told this paper that the matter has been brought to their attention and that they would in the next few days exercise their powers under Sections 89 Sub-section 1 of the PPA Act to investigate and establish whether there have been any serious breaches in the purchase of the 32 vehicles for the Audit Service.

The source said the PPA has every legal right to investigate any purchase that is likely to lead to any act of fraud, as well as serious breaches of the law and they would soon exercise that.

Vehicle Purchase

DAILY GUIDE has learnt that the Audit Service used part of its 2017 budgetary allocations, as well as funds from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to purchase a number of vehicles for the service without due process even though the service had denied the allegations.

Although the purchases of the vehicles went through procurement, the expenditure was well above the threshold of the Auditor-General, as well as the Entity Tender Committee of the Audit Service in contravention of the law.

The Service claims it had received concurrent approval from the PPA to purchase the vehicles as the amounts involved were above the approval limits of the Auditor-General and the Entity Tender Committee of the Audit Service.

A statement issued by the Public Relations Unit of the Audit Service puts the number of vehicles purchased at 32 at the cost of GH¢6,870,511.65.

But documents available to DAILY GUIDE clearly showed that the Entity Tender Committee of the Audit Service spearheaded the approval of funds for the purchases.

Information also indicated that the Service purchased the vehicles from funds from USAID, putting the amount involved well above seven million Ghana Cedis.

PPA Investigation

In the wake of the purchase of the vehicles and its accompanying issues regarding a possible breach of the Public Procurement Act, sources have confirmed to DAILY GUIDE that the PPA is set to commence investigations to ensure that no laws were broken.

“The PPA under Sections 89 (1) of the Public Procurement Act has every legal right to investigate public procurements that are likely to lead to any act of fraud and corruption. We shall exercise every legal right to investigate the matter to establish the truth once and for all. Nobody is independent of the Procurement Authority. Not even the Presidency,” the source said.

The source, however, could not confirm whether or not the Audit Service indeed received concurrent approval from the Central Tender Review Board (CTRB) in the purchase of the vehicles.

“As it is now, I cannot say whether they (Audit Service) received any concurrent approval from the Central Tender Review Board in purchasing the vehicle. That is why we are going to investigate the purchases to establish whether that was the matter or not. We will share our findings with the public once we are done,” the source added.

The Auditor-General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo is said to have spent a whopping GH¢7.6 million in purchasing 32 vehicles for the Audit Service without going through the right procurement processes.

The vehicles, which comprise five Toyota Land Cruiser Prados, one Toyota Land Cruiser 200 VX for himself and 21 Toyota IMV Hilux Deluxe, were purchased from the Service’s 2017 budgetary allocation.