The government has come under severe scrutiny from the Minority Caucus in Parliament for paying $2 million to a Mauritius company, Africa Investor Holdings Limited, for the Accra Sky Train Project without receiving the necessary parliamentary permissions and public procurement approvals.
The Caucus claims that the government has also contributed over $20 million in equity to the Accra City Pullman Hotel project even though there hasn’t been any construction for nearly two years.
“Before the company even started feasibility studies, someone in government had decided to pay $2 million to this entity and somewhere this year, Joe Ghartey said he has never said the government was going to fund the sky train project, and I am not sure he was reading what he had written because what was the $2 million meant for?”
The Minority Chief Whip, administration Agbodza, lashed out at the government in a press conference for what he called careless public spending and requested a probe into such losses.
He further raised concerns about the procedures followed before the payment was authorized in this way.
“The Auditor General report said the company didn’t have the license to operate the system and so the question is what was the reason for the government to give the company the money and who gave the directive for the payment?”
“It was wrong to take any decision to pay that money and so who authorized the payment in terms of the so-called feasibility and which normal entity pays out $2 million for a feasibility study before the project is determined whether it is bankable and so these things only happen when there is organized crime. When people are careless and reckless, and I think the minimum the Auditor General can do is to call for a refund,” Mr Agbodza added
