Communications Ministry Releases KelniGVG Contract Today

The Ministry of Communication will file the KelniGVG contract today, Monday, July 9, 2018.

A Communications Specialist at the ministry, Madam Sandra Frimpong said the contract and all relevant documents have been made available to the Attorney General’s Department, and the ministry is hoping to file them at the court’s registry by close of work on Monday.

The Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Anthony Yeboah last week ordered the Ministry of Communications to make public all documents on the KelniGVG contract.

This followed an application by two individuals, John Ato Bonful, and Nana Adom Kanyi, as well a pressure group, 'The Citizens of Ghana Movement' who feared the implementation of the contract could breach their rights to privacy hence sought an injunction at the court.

Ms. Frimpong in a Citi News interview said that “the documents have been given to the Attorney General's Department and we are certain and hopeful that they will file it at the court registry as the court requested that the Ministry of Communication does by close of today which is Monday, July 9.”

She noted that privacy concerns raised by Ghanaians about the contract have been addressed adding that KelniGVG would not listen to calls or monitor data as feared.

Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful
“Common Monitoring Platform is not a project which is aimed at compromising the privacy of consumers and to this, we reassure you that technical specifications have been provided to provide a further layer of protection and security to address the privacy concerns of the Mobile Network Operators. A filtering server and mirroring installation have been included to ensure that only the signalling information needed for the purposes of traffic monitoring will be received by the National Communications Authority (NCA) and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). No other information – voice, SMS, video or data will be received by KelniGVG servers….Ghanaians should be assured that, the issues regarding content of customer's voice and data are no longer valid,” she said.

The Ministry’s deal with KelniGVG has come under immense public scrutiny over fears of breach of privacy.

IMANI Africa sounded an alarm over the details of the deal and called for its termination.

The President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, argued that the deal mirrored the controversial deals the state entered into with Subah and Afriwave.

These deals were criticised by the now-governing New Patriotic Party when it was in opposition.

IMANI also raised the privacy concerns while questioning the credibility of Kelni GVG.

On Tuesday, July 3, an Accra High Court ordered the Communications Ministry to make available all documents relating to the deal to two citizens, and a pressure group, Citizens Ghana movement.

The court gave the Ministry, a deadline of July 9th to comply with the order.

The order followed an application by the two persons, John Ato Bonful and Nana Ama Adom-Boakye Kanyi, and the Citizens Ghana Movement, praying the court to give them access to the documents in the name of national interest.

The Ministry’s attempt to block the order from being effected at a court last week failed.