Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee in parliament, John Abdulai Jinapor, has accused the Bulk Oil and Transportation Company (BOST) of engaging in a procurement scandal with regards to a contract involving a twin-tower building.
The lawmaker alleges that documents in possession of the Minority caucus revealed that the current management of BOST has inflated the cost of the original contract without reasonable justification by the Public Procurement Authority.
Addressing journalists in parliament on July 28, John Jinapor said the original contract sum of the twin tower building which was valued at US$39 million now ballooned to a whopping US$78 million.
“If the two-tower building is accounted for based on the current cost of the single unit valued at $39,000,000.00. This means the building has been inflated by 100% over the original contract,†the lawmaker alleged.
“We [Minority] say so because we have noted that the current Management of BOST decided to acquire only one of the twin unit building due to the precarious financial position of the company, however it applied to the Public Procurement Authority for approval to vary the original contract for the single unit from the original price of $19,500,000.00 per unit to a new cost of $24,000,000.00,†he continued.
He further accused the Akufo-Addo administration and the PPA of engaging in illegality and financial malfeasance without any reasonable justification.
“To our utmost shock and dismay, but of cause as usual of this government, the PPA without any reasonable justification in granting the approval hiked the contract sum to an inflated figure of $39,000,000.00 for a single unit when BOST could have originally constructed the twin-tower office at the original price of $39,000,000.00,†John Jinapor said.
The Ranking Member of the Mines and Energy Committee however called for an independent investigation into the matter for urgent action to be taken against the persons involved.
Source: Ghanaweb