… More shady contracts uncovered
The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has dispatched a team of investigators to delve into cases of alleged irregularities in the award of contracts by the Upper Denkyira District Assembly, some involving foreign exchange payments.
The team which went on October 22, will among other matters, look into the award of consultancy service contracts for the collection of revenue and capacity building training for key members of staff which did not go through due process.
The Chronicle can report, for instance, that a consultancy contract awarded to Dasco Ventures and Consultancy (DV&C) for the collection of property rate at a 30% commission was done under questionable circumstances.
The District Chief Executive was said to have awarded the contract at that astronomical rate without reference to the tender board and Dasco Ventures was paid ?93.6 million representing 30% of the ?313.2 million collected.
Two other contracts fraught with irregularities were also awarded to Mr. Frderick Adu Dankwa of Jeavoco Associates Ltd based in Tema. One involved $3,860 and the other for $8000, for consultancy services in leadership training and team building for heads of departments and other key staff members of the assembly.
The training was in connection with the implementation of the World Bank sponsored Urban V project. The Upper Denkyira Assembly is one of the three districts in the Central Region that benefited from the Urban V facility.
The Chronicle sources at the assembly said the DCE, Mr. Richard Anane Adabor, failed to account properly for the assembly’s share of ?219.2million from the property rate collection after deducting ?93.6 million consultancy fees paid to DV&C.
The sources said the ?313.2 million for the property rate was released when the assembly had already prepared its annual budget and there was therefore the need for the DCE to seek approval if that revenue was to be used but this was not done.
Rather, The Chronicle gathered that the DCE went ahead to spend ?219.2 million, which constituted an excess budget.
In February this year, the DCE again disregarded the local government regulations when he sidestepped the assembly’s technical evaluation committee and handpicked people to evaluate the consultancy contract for the staff training.
Under the Local Government Act 1606, section 8(1), the chairman of the works sub-committee must chair the technical evaluation team but this was overlooked as a new team was appointed to evaluate the consultancy service.
It turned out that the three consultants who were short-listed for the contract — Alfred Kwesi Poku, Mensah Abrompah Agyabeng and the eventual winner, Alfred Adu Dankwa, work in the same consultancy firm, Jeavco Associates Ltd.
This revelation has further raised eyes brows about the credibility of the process of awarding contracts.
One of the three people that constituted the controversial evaluation team, The Chronicle learnt, did not participate fully in the evaluation process. Rather the documents were sent to him at home to endorse.
The team was made up of Mr. L.K Bayouh, former Coordinating Director of the Assembly as the chairman, Paul Mac Ofori, secretary and Mr. Ben Attabra, the District Budget Officer as member.
A member of the team alleged that he was not aware that the three people who bid for the contract were from the same consultancy firm until recently when the contract became an issue.
He told The Chronicle that he never saw the portion of the contract documents that stated that the three people biding for the contract were from the same firm.
“I would have refused to be part of such a thing if I had an idea about it. My attention was only drawn to this development recently”, he claimed.
The evaluation documents read in part: “Request for proposals (RPF) was sent to three shortlisted individuals on 6th February 2002. They are Messrs Alfred Kwasi Poku, Mensah Abrompah Agyabeng and Frederick Adu Dankwa all of JEAVCO ASSOCIATES Limited, a consultancy firm in Tema.”
“The proposals were opened on the February 12, 2003 for evaluation by a three-member panel. After going through the proposals the panel therefore found Mr. Frederick Adu Dankwa’s acceptable.”
Mr. Adabor denied any wrong doing in the award of contracts in separate interviews with The Chronicle over these and other issues.
He accused the paper of recycling the issues he had already dealt with in previous interviews
