Aspiring National Democratic Congress (NDC) Chairman, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, has denied claims that he was involved in the selection of the company in charge of the collection of party dues, nomination form fees and filing fees.
According to him, any such allegation is unfounded and should be treated with contempt.
In a press statement debunking the accusation leveled against him by Edem Agbana, he stated that while he has been a staunch advocate of the party acquiring a modernized electronic payment system to resource the party adequately, he was not involved in the selection of the company for the project.
He noted that the company that won the bid, RX-Zone Technologies, had by no means gone through him nor had he influenced the decision that had led to its selection.
“At the said meeting with Dr. Atta Boateng who was invited to help evaluate the proposals by the three companies with his technical background, I handed over the two proposals that came to me for the evaluation.
“The assertion that I was asked to meet with Dr. Atta Boateng separately to further review and report to the committee is a complete falsehood.
“I was never invited to any other meeting again until I was invited to a finance committee meeting in the office of the former chief of staff, Hon. Julius Debrah, where the company, RX-Zone Technologies that had already been selected by a means I am not in known of did a presentation on how the app was going to operate,” he clarified.
“The next time Edem Agbana is releasing such press statements, he should check the accuracy of the information he puts out before he tries to create any impression that I had anything to do with the company that won the bid. Our fidelity to the truth must not shift with the advent of internal competition,” he cautioned.
Below is the full statement:
My attention has been drawn to a publication issued by Edem Agbana purporting that I was involved in the selection of the company in charge of the collection of party dues, nomination forms fees and filing fees.
I decline this assertion emphatically and inclined to put out the facts as regarding the subject matter.
I have been a lead advocate championing a modernized electronic payment system for the past two years as a measure to resource the party adequately. I traveled around the country to educate party members about the benefits of the electronic payment system.
Yet I have been silent about issues leading to the selection of the vendor because I do not want the rank and file of the party to lose confidence in the system knowing the amount of energy I put into the establishment of the party’s electronic payment system.
I do not want to be dragged into anything about internal party acrimony especially as regards recent controversies about the vendor awarded the contract.
We have a responsibility to protect this party’s image and lead well in the management of information meant for internal purposes. Since it is Edem Agbana who issued this statement, I will assume that he issued it without having adequate information, because at no point was I asked to meet Dr. Atta Boateng to assist in the selection of companies for the project.
As confirmed by the disclaimer issued by the Director of Administrations, Mr. Emmanuel Zumakpe, through a letter issued under his hand on Thursday, November 17th, 2022, three (3) companies submitted their bids. Out of these three, only two of the companies submitted their bids to me and they were;
a) Global icon Agency limited with company registration number CS199352013, submitted by Daniel Austin who is the son of the former DCE of KEEA, Thomas Austin Ankomah, from 1991 to 2000. Daniel Austin was a parliamentary aspirant on the ticket of the NDC at KEEA in the 202O NDC parliamentary primaries and at the time the Regional Director of I.T. in the Central region. It must be placed on record that he was willing to offer the software and its services at zero cost to the party.
b) ELEKSTECHIQ limited company with registration number CS099350722, submitted by Nana Grant, a known NDC member who lives in Canada and the son of Nana Addo Aikins, PNDC tribunal chairman from Akropong constituency.
However, the third company, RX-Zone Technologies, which eventually won the bid submitted their proposal to Peter Boamah Otokunor, therefore I do not have any information on that company.
At the said meeting with Dr. Atta Boateng who was invited to help evaluate the proposals by the three companies with his technical background, I handed over the two proposals that came to me for the evaluation.
The assertion that I was asked to meet with Dr. Atta Boateng separately to further review and report to the committee is a complete falsehood.
I was never invited to any other meeting again until I was invited to a finance committee meeting in the office of the former chief of staff, Hon. Julius Debrah, where the company, RX-Zone Technologies that had already been selected by a means I am not in known of did a presentation on how the app was going to operate.
I have provided the company registration details of the two companies that submitted their bids to me for anybody to check whether they have any links to any NPP bigwigs, because when they were submitted to me, I did the necessary background checks and there were no indications whatsoever that they were linked to any NPP bigwig.
The next time Edem Agbana is releasing such press statements, he should check the accuracy of the information he puts out before he tries to create any impression that I had anything to do with the company that won the bid. Our fidelity to the truth must not shift with the advent of internal competition.
Signed
……………………………………
Barbara Serwaa Asamoah
(Deputy General Secretary-Fin. and admin)