Minster for Youth and Sports, Mr. Isaac Asiamah, has questioned the rationale to pay a whopping $525,000 as consultancy fee to RICS Consult for the preparation of bid documents for the 2017 African Cup of Nations.
Making his appearance on the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament on Tuesday, September 19, 2017 Mr. Asiamah disclosed that there was no existing contract between the Ministry of Youth and Sports and RICS Consult that should warrant the payment of the said amount.
According to the Auditor-General’s report made available by the committee, RICS Consult belonging to Rex Danquah was sole sourced for the preparation of the document which was in clear violation of Section 40 of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) which requires procurement entities to seek approval from the Public Procurement Authority before they engage in single source procurement.
In a response to questions posed to justify the payment of monies to RICS Consult, the Member of Parliament6 for the Atwima Mponua constituency in the Ashanti Region stated that “Since there is no existing contract between the Ministry and RICS Consult which my accountant has testified, then there is no way we are going to pay the said amount.”
He however, told the committee that an amount of $125,000 which is justified and commiserate with the services RICS Consult rendered had already been paid.
Ghana lost the bid to host the tournament which was won by Libya but Gabon was later allowed to host the tournament following a war that broke out in the North African country.