Parliament Has To Wake Up From Its Rip Van Winkle State

One more corruption index in the National Democratic Congress repertoire of siphoning state cash was unveiled in Parliament at the weekend, when it emerged that the cost of the 5.7 kilometre Achimota-Ofankor stretch of the Accra-Kumasi Highway was inflated from GH¢40.4 million to a staggering GH¢128 million.

The original contract was awarded to the China Railway Corporation by the New Patriotic Party administration of former President John Agyekum Kufuor in 2008, but the contract could not be executed until the NPP was sent packing from the Castle in the December 2008 polls.

When the NDC took over, the contract was reviewed, sending the contract sum to a whopping GH¢128 million.

At the weekend, Parliament was dragged into the gargantuan scheme of what Mr. Justice Jones Victor Mawulorm, sitting at the Supreme Court, described as a “create loot and share” syndrome of this administration, when the Speaker, Mr. Edward Doe Adjaho, chided the Roads and Transport Committee for failing to exercise adequate oversight role in what The Chronicle can conveniently refer to as the Achimota-Ofankor Road scam.

The Speaker said, with such a huge overrun, the committee had failed Parliament and the entire nation.

According to the House, a number of unrelated expenditures ballooned the original cost of the project from GH¢40.4 to GH¢128 million. The unrelated expenditure included the purchasing of a BMW seven series saloon car at a cost of US$160,305 for the use of Mr. Joe Gidisu in his capacity as the sector minister at the time.

The car had a comprehensive insurance cover of US$6,672 a year, VAT on it was US$17,424.54, and attracted National Health Insurance Levy of US$3,484.91.

An obviously disappointed Mr. Doe-Adjaho said the usual lame excuse that there was no money to do proper due diligence on the project, before approving the budget for the project, was a lame excuse.

“You don't need money to go round to be able to raise the red flag, because, every year, the committee recommends the appropriation of the budget for the ministry, and that in considering the estimates, due diligence could have been done to detect such expenses outside the normal budget.”

Like Rip Van Winkle, American novelist Washington Irvings' fictional character, Parliament has slept for too long over this matter. Former Road Minister Joe Gidisu's BMW addition to the cost of the Achimota-Ofankor Road broke out in the year 2011, prompting deceased President John Evans Atta Mills to issue an order for the vehicle to be parked at the Castle, then seat of Government.

Unfortunately for the good people of Ghana, this is not the only time that Parliament has looked the other way when costs of delivering projects have been inflated. Since the return of the NDC to Government House, value for money has become a stranger to the way contracts are awarded, supervised, and executed in this nation.

From Waterville, Africa Automobile, Isofoton, and Woyome, through the former Ghana Youth Employment Agency to roads and school blocks construction, costs have hit the roof with our Honourable Members powerless to act. The Smartty's bus branding episode, and several allegations throughout the country of projects bloating in costs, tells the story of a rotten society.

The Chronicle is unable to fathom why Parliament has not interested itself in the ubiquitous US$250 million out of the US$1 billion Eurobond money that bungling state officials, including Mr. Seth Terkper, Minister of Finance, have deposited in a foreign bank account, and allegedly used to buy treasury bills from the government.

According to the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, the amount handed over to Mr. Terkper was the cedi equivalent. Up till now, nobody has been able to establish how much the cedi equivalent of the US$250 was, when it was handed over.

One mystery surrounding the transaction is that Mr. Terkper himself appears not to know that at the time the money was handed over to him it was in cedis.

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that corruption has found a new lease of life under the Mahama administration. The fact that the President himself went on a tour of the regions to account to the people, without talking of the cost components of the projects executed, gives broad hints about the sleaze that has dogged this administration.

Like Rip Van Winkle, Parliament has slept for too long on its job of policing government contracts.

The House has to wake up to its responsibilities to the state, or it would become irrelevant in the fight against corruption.