North Tongu Member of Parliament, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has served notice he will be petitioning the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) today, Monday, July 22, to investigate an alleged shady ambulance spare parts procurement deal worth $34.9 million dollars (GH₵538 million).
Mr Ablakwa, who made the revelation in a Facebook post on Monday, July 22 backed by some documentary evidence of the transaction, is accusing the former Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and the former Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu of conniving with a private entity to rip off the state.
He alleges the Finance Minister hurriedly approved the deal five days before he was removed as Finance Minister.
According to him, the beneficiary company, known as Service Ghana Auto Group Limited, was incorporated on April 24, 2020, a year after the ambulances had been commissioned in 2019, questioning their capacity to service ambulances.
“Five days before leaving the Ministry of Finance after President Akufo-Addo’s lame-duck Valentine’s Day reshuffle, Ken Ofori-Atta decided to teach us one more unforgettable bitter lesson. Perhaps, it was his special way of exiting with a vengeance after incessant and relentless calls from suffering Ghanaians to have him sacked.”
He said, “In a grand ‘lootocratic’ conspiracy with the outgoing Health Minister, Kwaku Agyeman-Manu who was also affected by the reshuffle, the two abysmal performing ministers decided to cause more financial loss — it seems from the Sputnik V scandal, mismanagement of billions of covid funds, benefiting directly from loans accumulated, all the way to Ghana’s current bankruptcy — the two outgoing disastrous ministers didn’t think they have already wreaked enough havoc to have mercy on us.
In his last shockingly sleazy conduct, Ken Ofori-Atta by a letter dated 9th February 2024 approved a staggering US$34,904,505.00 to be paid to the discredited Service Ghana Auto Group Limited for the procurement of spare parts for the 307 ambulances purchased by the government in 2019.”
According to Mr Ablakwa, on the same 9th February 2024, the Finance Minister instructed the Controller and Accountant-General to release US$ 10 million, equivalent to GHS120, 711,000.00.
“My impeccable tracking of this transaction confirms that the Controller and Accountant-General processed and released the GHS120, 711,000.00 on February 23, 2024, which was promptly received in the accounts of Service Ghana Auto Group Limited.
The former Deputy Education Minister added that “an analysis of this dubiously outrageous transaction valued at US$34,904,505.00 for spare parts for 307 ambulances, actually translates into US$113,695.456.00 per ambulance.”
Instructively, checks from many Mercedes Benz ambulance dealers across the world show that US$113,695,456.00 is far more than the value of a considerable number of modern fully equipped new ambulances.”
Why sign a rip-off and an unconscionable sweetheart deal of US$113,695.456.00 just for spare parts when you can buy a new fully equipped modern Mercedes Benz ambulance for the same value, and even less? What happened to value for money and love for country?” he quizzed.
According to the MP, a deeper parliamentary oversight through GIFMIS assessments also confirms that even before this US$34.9million scandalous Ken Ofori-Atta/Agyeman-Manu send-off package, Service Ghana Auto Group Limited has received a colossal GHS115, 342,573 in payments for shoddy servicing of the ambulances between 2020 and 2023.”
This means, so far, Service Ghana Auto Group Limited alone will be making a mind-boggling GHS653 million from these ambulances. This figure is more than double how much the ambulances cost us in 2019. (Prevailing exchange rate of US$54million which was the cost of the 307 ambulances in 2019.)”
One wonders if the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government procured the ambulances to save lives or if they were procured to serve as an unbridled cash cow for corrupt politicians and their business collaborators” he noted.
Mr Ablakwa is particularly shocked that a company that had been indicted for all the wrong reasons in an Auditor General’s report could be selected for such a transaction.
“What is even more depressing, the Auditor General’s special audit titled — Performance Audit Report of the Auditor-General on Fleet Management of the National Ambulance Service which was published on May 25, 2022, had the following extremely damning conclusions about Service Ghana Auto Group Limited:
I) Service Ghana Auto Group Limited inflated invoices;
II) Service Ghana Auto Group Limited in many instances used staff of the National Ambulance Service for its maintenance even though all payments went to their company;
III) Service Ghana Auto Group Limited consistently breached maintenance schedules and procedures and
IV) The Service Ghana Auto Group Limited MoU with the National Ambulance Service did not inure to the benefit of the National Ambulance Service.
How can any Government which claims to care about protecting the public purse be aware of this damning audit report and still proceed to award an even bigger contract of US$34.9million (GHS538million) when Ghana did not get value for money after previously paying Service Ghana Auto Group Limited GHS115million?
He later told Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Monday, that the Auditor General’s report even went further to recommend that the company makes a refund to the state.
Who would have predicted that a government trying everything by hook or crook to have Minority Leader, Hon. Dr Ato Forson convicted in that infamous ambulance trial for allegedly causing financial loss of €2.37million would itself be recklessly, mindlessly and criminally causing real financial loss over US$34.9million through another ambulance transaction. Tomorrow is indeed pregnant “Mr Ablakwa concluded.