The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tamale North, Alhassan Suhuyini, has called on the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Godfred Dame, to look into the payment of $2 million to the investors for the Sky Train deal by the government.
According to him, it is shocking that such an amount of money would be paid to investors without any work done given the current economic predicament the country finds itself in, 3news.com reports.
The MP said that the Attorney-General must look into the transaction because it is clear that taxpayers' money has been squandered by the persons involved.
“If for nothing at all, the Attorney-General must up his game, these are the things that the Attorney-General must concern himself with.
“Clearly, the Attorney-General must be busy with things like these in saving the state money and retrieving these lost funds to the state at a time the state badly needs money to pay picketing pensioner bondholders, to pay food suppliers and uniform suppliers.
“The uniform suppliers is another kettle of fish. How do you give a contract for school uniforms to one person who goes to China to print them and come and determine the price for all to buy, that is another discussion. This country is a crime scene with this government in place. I am happy that the leadership of the Minority has taken up this particular matter and is demanding action from Attorney-General for this money to be retrieved,” he is quoted to have said by 3news.com.
Meanwhile, the former Minister of Railways Development and New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential aspirant for the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Joe Ghartey, has stated that he never paid any money to AI Sky nor authorized the payment of US$2 million to fund the Accra Sky Train Project.
Clarifying the issues in an interview on Citi FM and monitored by GhanaWeb Business, Joe Ghartey, who was minister when the discussions on the deal started, stated that he had made it clear from the beginning to the promoters of the Accra Sky Train Project that his ministry did not have the budget for the proposed project.
He, however, said he welcomed the project as a Build, Operate and Transfer (BOT) Project.
According to Ghartey, who is also the Member of Parliament for Essikado-Ketan, the Ministry of Railways Development signed a Memorandum of Understanding in February 2018 and signed another agreement with the promoters in November 2018.
He added that in 2019, the ministry signed a concession agreement with the promoters which included several conditions precedent.
“And so as far as my Ministry is concerned, we did not give them any money. I didn’t have any money and I didn’t have the power to pay any money and I did not pay any money. I don’t have the power to write for payment to the company in Mauritius. GIIF [Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund] is the statutory corporation that has the power to make such payments and so you can ask them,” he added.
BAI/WA
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Godfred Dame (right), Alhassan Suhuyini (left)
