'Mahama government inflated contracts' – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Akufo-Addo has said the New Patriotic Party’s criticism of contracts being inflated in the Mahama era, has turn out to be credible.

Speaking at his second encounter with the media at the Flagstaff House in Accra on Wednesday, 17 January 2018, Nana Akufo-Addo said unlike the Mahama administration, his government saved GHS145million through the procurement process since sole-sourcing was not the norm as pertained in the Mahama government.

He said: “You’ll recall that as part of the election campaign, we said part of the reasons for the difficulties with the economy was the sole-sourcing of procurement by government.

“Let me give you a few figures to illustrate this point. In the year 2016, the Public Procurement Authority had 622 sole sourced request. 577 of that number which is 98 per cent were approved and there were 25 rejections. There were 592 requests made for restricted tenders and 587 which is 99.15 per cent were approved and there were five rejections. A grand total of zero savings were made through the procurement process.

“In 2017, our first year in government, 394 sole-sourcing requests were made out of which 223, that is 56.6 per cent were approved and 171 which is 43.6 per cent were rejected. There were 346 requests for restricted tenders and 167 which is 48 per cent were approved and 179 which is 52 per cent were rejected. The savings made over the year as a result amounted to GHS145million.

“As my old mathematics teacher used to say, you cannot argue with figures and such figure surely provides the incentives to open up government procurement.”

The president said: “This shows the credibility of our criticism that so much of contracts awarded in the Mahama era were inflated and in some cases nonexistent."