Scandal: Metro Mass MD, 2 Others Fingered In Procurement Breaches

The Managing Director of Metro Mass Transit is alleged to be on a tape attempting to circumvent procurement processes in the purchase of supplies for the company.

Bennet Aboagye, his Technical Assistant, Yiadom Boakye Kessie and Procurement Manager, Rose Owusu were captured on tape asking the head of procurement to select their preferred supplier, a clear violation of the rules.

The MD and Technical Assistant have refused to state whether or not the voices and the content of the recording are theirs.

After playing the tape to Rose Owusu however, she confirmed to Joy News’ Manasseh Azure Awuni that the female voice in the audio is hers.

She confirmed that she indeed was in a meeting with the MD and Procurement Manager and that they had asked her to circumvent the procurement process.

Sources suspect that the MD re-engaged Rose Owusu in order to help him engage in nefarious activities, a claim both the MD and Rose deny.

According to documents available to Joy News, Rose resigned from Metro Mass in November 2016 after she was removed from the procurement unit to the stores.

Sources in the company say she was cited in procurement irregularities, a claim she again denies.

According to her, none of the audits that supposedly implicated her was brought to her attention and nobody queried her over any procurement malfeasance.

She believes she was targeted after she refused to help the then board chairman to undermine procurement processes in favour of a company of his choosing.

Less than a year after she resigned, the new MD re-engaged her and increased her salary by 151%, a move that was questioned by the internal audit manager.

Both the MD and Rose say the salary is in line with what unit heads were receiving, and that hers was not out of place.

In the recording, however, the MD’s Technical Advisor is heard saying she was brought in and paid good salary to help in the procurement deals.

Rose Owusu has argued that she is a professional and would not sideline her professionalism to please anybody.

Despite her plea of innocence, she is however caught in another tape assuring a company that had put in a bid for the supply of 300 buses that it would be helped win the contract.

She said the coaching was in respect of a minor administrative problem which she had to draw the attention of the company to.

She, however, said the part she said they had been ordered to award the contract to the company was a miscommunication of her intention because she was not prepared to breach the procurement process.