Ghc400M Zoomlion Debt Sparks Fight In NDC - Elvis Afriyie Ankrah Vrs Haruna Iddrisu

A whopping debt of over GHC400 million owned by Government to Zoomlion Ltd as a management fee for services it provided under the sanitation module of the defunct Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) has pitched Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, a former Minister for Youth and Sports, against Haruna Iddrisu, Minister for Employment and Labour Relations.

The debt was accumulated for “the period for which a binding contract did not exist between the company and the State”, according a Cabinet memo authored by Haruna Iddrisu.

According to Mr Iddrisu’s memo, dated May 6, 2016, the total debt of GHC448, 150, 762 was accumulated due to the failure of Elvis Afriyie Ankrah, then Minister for Youth and Sports, to carry out the directive from President Mahama to terminate the contract with Zoomlion.

But, in another counter memo, Mr Afriyie Ankrah, a Minister of State as the Presidency, challenged the claim that he failed to carry out the president’s directive, describing Mr Iddrisu’s as “inaccurate”.

“According to the Hon. Minister, the Ministerial Impact Assessment and Review Committee which was commissioned by the Ministry of Youth and Sports in 2013(when I was the sector Minister then), recommended the termination of contracts.

‘..However, because the Ministers of both the Ministries of Local Government and Youth and Sports at the time, did not avert their minds to addressing the issue head-on, the Government is today saddled with a debt of GHC400 million…’

I wish to state emphatically the Minister’s assertion as captured in his statement is inaccurate,” Elvis insisted in him memo.

He added: “…it will be erroneous and factually incorrect to conclude that the Ministers of Youth and Sports and Local Government at the time (with reference to my tenure), did not cancel agreements when the Ministerial Committee that was commissioned recommended their cancellation in their report; hence the debt of GHC400 million.”

The memo from Haruna Iddrisu recalled that “the Committee noted that, based on a report by the Ministerial Assessment Committee, H.E the President directed that the Ministry of Youth and Sports should write to terminate the sanitation contract with Zoomlion Ltd.”

It adds: “However, H. E. the President’s directive was not carried out to the letter as a result of which Zoomlion Ltd continued to render services to the State since 2013 to date.”

The failure by Elvis Afriyie to carry out the directive, according to Haruna Iddrisu, “had resulted in the accumulation of debt amounting to Four Hundred and Forty-Eight Million, One Hundred and Fifty Thousand, Seven Hundred and Sixty-Two Ghana Cedis(GHC448,150,762) being management fees due to the service provider(‘Zoomlion’).”

Mr Iddrisu added in his memo that “Out of this sum, am amount of Sixty-Two Million Ghana Cedis (GHC62, 000,000) has been paid by the District Assembly Common Fund to Zoomlion.”

The Executive Chairman of Zoomlio Ltd, Joseph Siaw Agyepong, at a meeting with the committee “…indicated that since their last contract with the government expired in 2012, all correspondences made to the Sector Ministry to get the contract renewed did not yield any response. However, he said the company continued to render services to the State since sanitation activities could not be brought to an abrupt end country-wide. He confirmed to the meeting that payment had not been made for the services rendered from 2013 to 2015(i.e the period for which a binding contract did not exist between the company and the State).”

Why did Mr Siaw Agyepong petition President Mahama about the situation? What came out of the petition? What arrangement was made to pay the GHC400 million debts arising out of the services provided by Zoomlion at the time there was no binding agreement? Stay tuned.