Manasseh Azure Awuni
Freelance investigative journalist Manasseh Azure Awuni has said that one of the reasons he hated the Mahama administration was its failure to comprehensively deal with the GYEEDA rot.
He explained that the GYEEDA scandal started under JA Kufuor’s administration when Zoomlion won a fraudulent contract under NYEP in 2006, but the subsequent Mills-Mahama administration made the situation worse.
“I was therefore happy when the NPP, on November 16, 2016, held a press conference on the GYEEDA rot, especially the Zoomlion contract. They said [that] Mahama could not abrogate it because he was benefitting from rots of that nature. Then the so-called incorruptible Akufo-Addo took over. What did he do about that fraudulent and needless contract?” Manasseh Azure Awuni wrote under Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko’s post on Facebook.
He continued: “Remember this contract said Zoomlion should go to Bongo and supervise sweepers employed by the government and receive 400 cedis out of the 500 cedis allocated to the sweepers? The Akufo-Addo administration renewed that fraudulent contract. Yes, it was renewed. Note that since March 2013, there has not been a written agreement between the Government and Zoomlion.”
Manasseh Azure Awuni indicated that by February 2019, that fraudulent “no written agreement” deal had cost the people of Ghana GH¢1.62 billion.
“This is one of the reasons I have lost trust and hope in Akufo-Addo. So Akufo-Addo is not different from Mahama. In this GYEEDA case, Mahama has proven to be far better than Akufo-Addo because he jailed people, cancelled contracts, enacted legislation that made GYEEDA cleaner. These are facts that cannot be contested,” he stressed.
