Ghanaian businessman, Richard Jakpa has opened up about how he came up with the idea for the government’s ambulance procurement that has landed him in trouble.
This transaction has become the centre of controversy in the trial where the Attorney General is accusing Minority Leader Dr Cassiel Ato Forson of causing financial loss to the state to the tune of 2.3 million Euros through the purchase of sub-standard ambulances.
Mr Jakpa is the third accused in the legal tussle and has accused the Attorney General of merely pursuing the matter to witch-hunt the Minority Leader at all costs.
Speaking to JoyNews’ Elton Brobbey on ‘The Pulse’, the businessman explained the processes leading to his engagement with Big Sea Company Limited to broker the deal on behalf of the government.
According to him, “the blueprint, everything emanated from me because I am an entrepreneur.
“The first State of the Nation Address (SONA) by Atta Mills, spoke about the lack of ambulances in the country. And it was serious and that was one of his priorities. So as soon as I heard it, as an entrepreneur, I immediately put the team together and tasked them to go across the country to find out the state of ambulances.
“They went round, they spent some time and we realised we had about 34 ambulances or so in the country. And that was serious. So we put together a proposal,” he said.
He said he contacted his bank at the time and secured suitable financial arrangements and then proceeded to present the proposal to secure ambulances for the Health Ministry which included a loan facility.
“And luckily for me, I was able to convince the bank. They sought approval from the underwriters in South Africa. It was approved and then they ring-fenced the 15.8 million euros for this project. And gave me the term sheets. They signed it nice, it was signed. So I attached it to the proposal, and then wrote officially to the Ministry of Health… Their own is a technical specification of the ambulance but the financial term sheet is not within their domain, it’s for the Minister of Finance.
“So, therefore, they sent the whole document to the Minister of Finance and they copied my company that the health [Ministry] was interested because it wasn’t going to be a burden on the budget. It will be three years to pay and there’s even a moratorium, so it was easy for them. So as soon as they copied my company, then I realized that the government was interested, health was interested and they only wanted Finance advice on term sheets, which falls under the domain of finance. So as soon as we got a letter we said okay, then we’re in business. We started scouting out for manufacturers, who had our technical specification,” he explained.
It was after this stage that the scouting led Mr Jakpa to Big Sea Company Limited and concluded negotiation in 2011.
According to him, even though he entered into the Big Sea agreement to be the company’s Ghana agent, their meticulous nature caused the company to contract Jakpa@Business for all its West African dealings except for Nigeria.
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