Ghc3.6m bus branding cash meant for railway dev’t
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A leaked confidential Government document available to Citi News has revealed that the GHc 3.6 million of Ghana’s oil revenue released for the controversial bus branding deal, was actually intended for the development of Ghana’s ailing railway sector.
According to the document, the Ministry of Transport did not have the funds to pay Smarttys Management and Productions Limited for the branding, and thus reallocated the Annual Budget Funding (ABF) amount for the development of railway infrastructure to pay for the branding of the 116 buses.
The leaked document highlighted the fact the allocation was done with the approval of the Finance Ministry.
These documents also show that the Ministry of Transport did not have the funds to pay Smarttys and therefore, with the approval of the Ministry of Finance,the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) to support Railway Infrastructure Development was reallocated to make the payment to Smarttys.
The document is believed to be the Attorney General’s investigative report on the bus branding scandal which forced Dzifa Attivor to resign as Minister for Transport.
A section of the leaked document said, “these documents [the AG’s investigative report] also show that the ministry of Transport did not have the funds to pay Smarttys and therefore, with the approval of the Ministry of Finance, the Annual Budget funding Amount (ABFA) to support Railway Infrastructure Development was reallocated to make the payment to Smarttys.”
The document contains additional evidence that some state officials blatantly flouted the 1992 Constitution, the Public Procurement Act and a number of other laws that govern the use of public funds.
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By Delali Adogla-Bessa
ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson
[email protected] An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.
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