Kelni GVG Deal Is Fraudulent, Illegal

Tamale Central Parliamentarian, Inusah Fuseini, is suggesting deception and illegality in the contentious deal between the government and Kelni GVG.

According to Mr Fuseini, the two state agencies involved in signing the deal, the Finance and Communications ministries, “have no capacity to sign contracts”.

From his legal viewpoint, “the agreement entered into with Kelni GVG is fraudulent in nature and quite illegal”.

The former Lands and Natural Resources Minister made the remark Saturday on news analysis programme Newsfile on JoyNews TV.

Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, has been defending the controversial $89m telecom revenue monitoring contract signed with Haiti-based company, Kelni GVG which will allow the government to among others, determine the telecom operators are declaring accurate figures.

The revenue assurance contract with Kelni GVG is based on a law which mandates government to independently verify the taxes telcos pay to government.

But Inusah Fuseini says the parties who signed it had no business doing so on the basis of law.

“You know by law, the Ministries [Finance and Communications] have no capacity to enter into contracts. This contract ought to be between the Government of Ghana acting through the respective ministries,” he indicated, suggesting an advice was not sought from the Attorney-General’s Department before the deal was pushed through.

“That clearly tells you that this contract did not go through the Attorney-General ‘s office because the Attorney-General would have advised against this fraud,” Mr. Fuseini told the host, Samson Lardy Anyenini.

That is not the only issue the opposition party legislator had with the contract as he described as “a façade”, a statement by the Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, that the contract is renewable after five years.

“When you talk about implementation, it [contract] is saying that the management of the common platform shall be for a total period of seven years; management of the common platform shall be carried out together with three staffs of the NCA and the whole project shall be transferred to the Authority [NCA] at the end of 10 years,” he read from a document about the scope of the agreement.

“So clearly, the contract itself has fundamental problems,” the MP interpreted.

Kweku Baako

Meanwhile, Editor-in-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, Abdul Malik Kweku Baako who disputed the claim by the opposition MP, supports calls for an independent probe into the deal.

“…to be honest with you I’m unable to see fraud or smell fraud but I agree with you [Inusah] that it [agreement] should be investigated,” Mr. Baako stated.

Member of Parliament for Efutu constituency in the Central Region, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, wants those who are opposing the deal including policy think tank IMANI Africa, to situate their arguments in the appropriate circumstances.

“There is nothing wrong with IMANI questioning this deal but that should be done on fair grounds,” Afenyo-Markin said.

Watch the discussion: