Government’s Fraudulent Purchase Of $2.5m Ghana Post GPS App, A Financial Loss To The State

Coalition for Democratic Governance (CDG) has described the recent decision by government to purchase an app at a cost of $2.5 million to establish a digital address system for Ghana as fraudulent and a financial loss to the state.

The CDG recognises that this technological and financial fraud is just one of the outcomes of an New Patriotic Party (NPP) governance process, based on plagiarism and deliberate dishonesty obfuscating the implementation of otherwise laudable public policies and projects such as Planting for Food and Jobs, Free SHS, Nursing and Colleges of Education and others which were largely thoughtfully initiated by the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government

Investigations conducted by CDG revealed that the “Ghana Post GPS” uses a Global Positioning System (GPS) based technology which is not a new technology contrary to what has been stated by the Vice President of The Republic of Ghana, Dr. MahamuduBawumia. It is important to note that GPS was invented in 1960s by Ivan A. Getting, Roger L. Easton and Bradford Parkinson to be used by the military; United State of America among the few countries that have their own GPS, Ghana on the other hand has none.

The Ghana Post GPS uses existing geographical coordinate (longitude and latitude) in Google Maps to generate a unique code that is already populated in the Ghana Post GPS App. This unique code is what the App refers to as POSTCODE. To verify this, one need to enter the longitude and latitude generated by the App into Google search bar or google map and the location will be given. By this revelation, CDG is of the view that, it is totally needless for government to spend such an amount to buy the Ghana Post GPS.

CDG is also raising issues of security of biodata of Ghanaians considering the fact that the Server for the Ghana Post GPS App is hosted by Amazon Web Services (AWS) a cloud services platform where we don't have physical access to the server. It is worth noting that after a successful registration, one is asked to register his or her address by entering his ID Number and selecting the type of ID. That is passport, driver’s license or voters ID. This comes with no validation with any of the ID types with any state institution whatsoever.

CDG want to know why Ghanaians should save their personal information into a server which is not hosted in Ghana and What happens if US government decide to force AWS to give up all sensitive data processed by Ghana Post GPS App to track users activities?

The coalition also wants to know who is paying for the monthly subscription as the server is hosted on AWS? Is it Vokacom as part of their $2.5m contract or Ghana Post and how much?

CDG is of the opinion that the App should not have cost more than $150,000 especially when the data stored is not an image but alphanumeric.

If Facebook app which has twenty (20) plus features and is integrated with Google maps can cost $500,000 to develop in 9months, how can just an App which is an integration of Google cost $2.5m?

All that Vokacom did was to build a front facing end application with a simple engine to tag unique codes to GPS coordinates

It will interest Ghanaians to note that after generating their address, one is given four options. That is Map, Route, Street and Share. Apart from share which does not work when given the Map View, the rest uses Google API integration.

A typical example:
Code: GA-221-3759;
Address: Guggisberg Ave, Accra, Ghana;
Map View: https://www.gps.ghanapost.com.gh/mobilemapview.html#GA2213759...

The map view does not work.
CDG is of the view that there is no value for money and the most important part is information provided by users are not secured as it falls into the hands of foreigners.

The coalition is by this statement calling on the NPP government to:

1. As a matter of urgency conduct an IT audit on the App to ensure security of biodata of Ghanaians.

2. Come clear on the procurement process leading to the purchasing of the said App

3. Come clear on the KPIs of the App.
4. Review the contract to ensure Ghanaians have value for money .

Lastly we are demanding an unqualified apology from the Vice president Dr. MahamuduBawumia, the head of Ghana Post and Ministry of Communication for misleading Ghanaians.

Dr. E. K. Hayford
Chief Convener, CDG.

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