President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has issued a stern warning to NPP communicators who continue to fight the policy think tank group over the controversial Kelni GVG deal signed between the Government of Ghana and Haitian firm Kelni GVG to desist from the act.
According to him, party communicators who continue to fuel debate on the issue should give up on their worthless fight because their superiors have started consulting the policy think tank on the issue.
Franklin Cudjoe comment is in reaction to demands by section of Ghanaians to respond to the Finance Minister’s statement concerning the $178 million deal.
He described as "uninformed" the “noise” being made by the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta.
The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta while speaking at the MTN Ghana Initial Public Offering (IPO) launch on May 29 said, “There’s a whole lot of noise about some platform services going on and I think people have also brought up the issue of data protection. These are all things that we can find curses to without getting political and I think it is incumbent on the telcos to be able to provide solutions to some of the issues of data protection”.
Responding to the issue, Franklin Cudjoe in a Facebook post said, “How I wished people will stop asking me to respond to the Finance Minister's uninformed comment about the 'noise ' over GVG. I will only say this. It is important to know that those who still think they are fighting IMANI on behalf of party or personalities involved in this saga, should know that their superiors have started consulting”.
He further indicated that, “It is in that spirit we have slowed our fully cocked advocacy. We are talking and hope the talking ends in outcomes that will be good for Ghana. We will leave it at that for now”.
Kelni GVG, a Haitian originated company, was awarded a contract by the government for design, development and implementation of a common platform for traffic monitoring, revenue assurance, and mobile money monitoring and fraud management, a service already being rendered by Afriwave and Subah Info Solution.
IMANI has questioned the rationale behind the new contract with Kelni GVG, describing it as wasteful and aimed at milking the public purse.
According to the policy think tank group, reasons espoused by government officials to back the deal lack financial sense except that it was premised on political thinking.
Although government insists the deal saves the country $1.1 million a month, Franklin Cudjoe wonders why the state has been paying the firm $1.5 million per month since January for “no work done”. To him, the deal is “needless” and a rip-off.
Mr. Cudjoe further revealed that “the Tax Justice Network has issued a statement displeased with the responses from the supervising ministry. Andall leading CSOs in Ghana met three days ago to agree on the way forward and letters detailing our specific issues and request have been served the appropriate respondents. All leading CSOs and think tanks in Ghana numbering 25 and a leading investigative journalist, Manasseh cannot be wrong on this GVG deal. Thank you for your time”.
Moving away from the Kelni GVG saga, Mr. Cudjoe urged government to ensure that the National ID works all over again.
Franklin Cudjoe, IMANI President