The Police Criminal Investigative Department has interrogated Joy News’ Manasseh Azure Awuni, the architect behind robbing the Assemblies investigations.
He was interrogated not as a complainant or suspect. He was just to assist the police with information on details of an investigation that has grabbed major news headlines
Accompanied by a team of lawyers and some colleagues, Manasseh Azure Awuni provided documentary, video and audio evidence of the investigations he conducted on some questionable contracts signed between the Local Government Ministry under erstwhile president John Mahama and the Jospong Group of companies.
The police among other things sought clarifications on how the Jospong Group of companies won contracts to supply one million waste bins and 900,000 bin liners, at prices higher than the market prices for the same products.
The $74 million contract sole sourced to five Jospong subsidiaries had a possible contract inflation of about ¢130 million. Even though the company sold the waste bins on the market at ¢150.00, they sold it to the government at $60 each the equivalent of which was ¢250 million at the time.
Worse still the contract was not needed at all because Joy News checks indicated that the assemblies already had waste bins begging to be distributed to homes and offices. They were left at the mercy of the weather.
The police were also concerned about the fumigation contract in which 11 Jospong companies received a ¢98 million contract to fumigate markets, places of convenience just to fight the scourge of cholera.
That contract signed in 2015 for a period of four months, came at a time Zoomlion, another subsidiary of the Jospong Group of companies, had an existing contract to do the same job, a job they had failed to do, Assembly members confirmed to Manasseh Azure Awuni.
Even though the police promised to get to the bottom of issues, they would not say who they intend to interrogate next Manasseh Azure-Awuni told Joy News after his return from the police headquarters.
Officials of the Jospong Group of companies were also interrogated last week.
It is not clear yet if the police will extend a hand of invitation to Collins Dauda, former Local Government Minister under whose signature some of the contracts were signed as well as the former Chief of Staff who gave instructions for monies to be released.