Re: 'Government cancels GHC362m contract after Joynews investigation'

The Management of Jospong Group has asked Ghanaians to ignore a publication by the Multimedia Group Limited alleging that its investigation led to the cancellation of the one million bin contract signed with the erstwhile Mahama administration.

According to the company, the publication which they also described as 'unfortunate', 'misleading' and borne out of 'sheer mischief' was not a clear representation of the issues that emanated from the waste bin contract.

While stating their facts in a press release signed by Management, the Group also expressed its disappointment in the Multimedia Group Company for the alleged false publication.

Find the full release below

We wish to state that we find the publication quite unfortunate, misleading and sheer mischief from a once respected media group like the multimedia. As a matter of principle, the Jospong Group is not keen on responding to every issue that is raised in the media and wish to state that we find the publication rather being a misrepresentation of issues that emanated from the waste bin contract. We are surprised Joyfm could misrepresent the facts after being an ardent follower of this waste bin contract. We however feel obliged to comment on this false publication to assuage any discomfort the falsehood has created to us and our stakeholders and wish to explain the facts pertaining the issue as follows;

.The company earlier in 2017, gave a detailed information on the execution of the contract which was a Pre-Financing and Credit Sale contract-which means that the contractor in this case the companies that won the contract will PRE-FINANCE the project which was to supply a total of 1,000,000 bins and 900,000 pieces of biodegradable bin liners at a contract sum of 74,040,000 United States Dollars.

·It was made clear at the time that the contract had a payment terms and life span of 24 months, which then indicates that the contract naturally elapses after 24 months which is two years-a fact which multimedia is aware of, but tried to play heroism by pretending that the contract had been cancelled because of their investigation.

·We had correspondence with government on this contract and government lauded the waste bin distribution initiative as a major solution towards solving the country’s waste management challenge. However, government stated that it was financially constrained and may not be able to provide the needed funds to execute the initiative. It was based on this that both parties decided not to execute the project. We find it so erroneous that any individual or entity will attribute this to their maligning one-sided investigation as the reason for the “non-performance”. We dare the media organisation to produce the letter or document that states that the contract had been “cancelled” due to their investigations! Is it not intriguing for multimedia to say that a contract that has elapsed is now cancelled or terminate?

·Accordingly, contract of the listed companies has lapsed on THEIR OWN TERMS per clause 34 (a) as …within the stipulated time. It is therefore unfortunate and sad that the Multimedia Group would like to deceive the public with such a false publication! For their education, 16th November 2016 to 29th November, 2018 is 24 months that is two years-which is the span of the contract!

·Due to the importance the company attaches to this project we sourced funding through a loan facility of $10 million from Ecobank Ghana limited to execute this project. We continue to commend the bank for their concern on the environmental sanitation.

In August 2017, when the same issue was raised by the Multimedia group with some erroneous information trying to impute wrong doing to the company on this particular contract, the Jospong Group issued a statement clarifying the details of the said contract.

The Management of Jospong Group has called on the general public to reject the publication by the Multimedia Group and claims that its so-called investigation has led to the cancellation of an earlier one million bin contract signed with the previous administration.

We wish to place on record that the concept of providing the waste bin as part of the solutions to Ghana’s environmental sanitation problem was initiated by Zoomlion Ghana Limited and its mother Company Jospong Group.

On assumption of office by the new government, the company approached the ministry to discuss the terms of this “One million bin” concept and contract with them, but the Ministry, though lauded the initiative, indicated they could not carry it through due to financial constraints, hence our backing down on the execution of the contract.

As stated in the letter from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development dated 29th November 2018 and signed by the Chief Director,

“I have been directed to invite your attention to the fact that the contracts have lapsed on account of non-performance by the contracting companies.

As the leading waste management company in the Country and Africa with such vast experience in the provision of integrated waste management solutions, we firmly believe that the acquisition of waste bins by every household and the placement of same in designated public areas hold the key to solving the waste management problem and put Ghana on the path of achieving the President’s vision of making Accra the cleanest city.

Management is focused on delivering on its core business of keeping our communities clean, green and healthy and advise the general public to reject the false publication by the multimedia and its journalists with the disdain that it deserves.

You may kindly contact the undersigned for further clarification

SIGNED

Group Communications Directorate