Ghana: Public Procurement Authority Approved Monies Higher Than Requested By Corporations Seeking Contracts.

By Maxwell Nkansah

A commission set up by the Chief of Staff to reconnoiter accusations of extravagant indentures at the Ghana Airport Company revealed incongruities between figures quoted by corporations vying for the contracts and the amounts submitted to the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) for approval.

According to findings of the report the Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the corporations and the Airport Corporation had not changed, the figures that received approval from the PPA were significantly higher than those submitted by corporations themselves.

The companies were seeking maintenance contracts with the Airport Corporation for terminal 3. When confronted over the development, management of the Airport Corporation told the Commission that there was consultation with the workers union over the figures.

However, the commission said there was not enough evidence to back the claim by management. The committee was unable to obtain minutes of the financial negotiations and could therefore not verify the basis for the price differentials.

The committee also discovered that the staff of the companies awarded the contracts were not fully certified as required by the aviation industry.

Meanwhile, the Public Service Workers Union of the TUC has written to the Managing Director of the Ghana Airport Corporation requesting a meeting over the suspected assault of a union member of the Ghana Airport company by the MD.

The Managing Director of the Ghana Airport Company Yaw Kwakwa is supposed to have physically assaulted the worker at the premises of the corporation thru a staff meeting. Workers of the corporation had met over the nonpayment of their welfare deductions into the respective fund managers and SSNIT.