208 Cars Missing At Flagstaff House

Over two 208 vehicles are said to be missing from the presidential fleet at the Flagstaff House, a situation which has compelled President Akufo-Addo to use his personal vehicles for some of his official duties, especially during his inter-city trips.

Even the account of vehicles bequeathed to the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration by the Mahama-led National Democratic Congress (NDC) government as captured by the Administrator General is short of 37.

The Administrator General says 678 vehicles were captured in the transition documents at the presidency; deputy chief of staff under Mahama, Jonny Osei Kofi gave a figure of 641 – giving a difference of 37.

The Administrator General believes that former Chief of Staff under Mahama and the Director of Protocol at the presidency should be held responsible for the over 208 missing vehicles.

Eugene Arhin, Acting Director of Communication at the Flagstaff House, lamented, “The President of the Republic currently has virtually only one vehicle at his disposal. This is the vehicle which was purchased in 2007 during the Ghana at 50 celebrations. It is a BMW.

“He, unfortunately, has to use his own vehicles because the vehicle meant for the presidency or vehicles meant for his use are currently not available.

“So vehicles right from 2007 when these Ghana at 50 vehicles were bought right down to now, if you go to the presidential pool, you cannot find any of them and it is not as if those are the only ones. There are lots of other vehicles missing,” he disclosed.

The disclosure by the Acting Director of Communications to President Nana Akufo-Addo during an interview he granted an Accra-based radio station, added more fuel to a national conversation in which Ghanaians have shown tremendous interest.

Giving an insight to the vehicle situation at the Flagstaff House upon the assumption of office of the President, Mr Eugene Arhin said an inventory of the fleet given to the Chief of Staff was eventually handed over to an Army Captain who is in-charge of the transport pool at the presidency.

This, he said, gave an insight into the number of vehicles, types and models with wide disparities between what was handed to them and what is available.

From this document it was discovered that there were supposed to be a total of 196 Toyota V8 Land Cruisers in the pool.

122 Land Cruiser V8 Vehicles Missing
Giving details of the contents of the inventory and the real picture, Eugene said of the total number of 196 Toyota Land Cruisers contained in the document “we only came to meet 74 so we have 122 which cannot be found. Toyota Prados 73, we met 20, 43missing; Mercedes Benz 24, we met only 11; Toyota Avalon 28, we met only 2; BMW 6, we met only 2.”

The Toyota Avolons were the official vehicles of departed President Mahama, but only two were kept with no security features – making it impossible for President Akufo-Addo to use them.

The Land Cruisers also have no security features, meaning that the vehicles used by President Mahama have been spirited away.

Of the numbers mentioned above, he said that there were also pick-ups to be accounted for. There are five models of vehicles the Acting Communications Director claimed, out of which a total of 208 are out of the reach of the Transport Pool of the Flagstaff House; and if the other brands are added, the missing vehicles would be more.

It is this situation which Mr Arhin said informed the setting up of a taskforce made up of the personnel from the Police, Driver Vehicle and Licensing Authority (DVLA), Bureau of National Investigation (BNI) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to locate and retrieve the missing vehicles.

The President of the Republic, he said, under the circumstances, depends on a 2007 BMW for his rounds not so however, when he has to travel outside Accra as he did recently when he attended the Asantehemaa's funeral in Kumasi and last weeks' commemoration of the death of Dr. JB Danquah at Kyebi in the Eastern Region.

“During the foregone engagements outside Accra, President Nana Akufo-Addo relied on the vehicle he used for the campaign season,” Eugene said.

“The vehicles with the requisite security features which the president must use officially are not traceable,” the Acting Communications Director added.

The good news according to him, is that, the taskforce claims to have received significant leads about the whereabouts of some of the missing vehicles.

Vehicles so impounded during the work of the taskforce are sent to the police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) where owners must prove ownership documentarily lest suspects are quizzed.

But in a rebuttal of the picture from the presidency, a former Deputy Chief of Staff, Johny Osei Kofi, has shot down the claims saying that they are not true.

“They represent a continuation of the distortions and bad faith that have characterised the conduct of the NPP side of the Transition Team,” he said adding that “As part of the transition process, both the Assets and Logistics Committee on the NPP side were given a detailed list of all vehicles in the pool at the presidency. More importantly, a total of 641 vehicles were listed and properly accounted for.

This was duly captured in the handing over notes.”
By A.R. Gomda