The clerk was dragged before a special attorney to be awarded the GHC2m contract

General News of Monday, July 15, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-07-15

The Clerk of the Board of Nurses and Midwives has been reported to the special prosecutor for allegedly being awarded a 2 million euro contract for the construction of a home.

A group, Alliance for Social Equity and Public Accountability (ASEPA), said in a petition that he had evidence of offenses in purchases, tax evasion and corruption at the company. 39 from the Registrar, Felix Nyante.

Executive Director Mensah Thompson, who signed the petition, said the offenses were committed between 2014 and 2016.

The petition says that in 2016, Mr. Nyante, without resorting to the Public Procurement Authority (PPP), has built a repository of documents where the board documents are kept.

He first obtained the approval of the APP to allow the process of calling for tender restrictive in the bid for construction. Three letters have been selected for the offer.

But the project, evaluated for the first time at 400,000 euros, was carried out without any reward for these companies. According to ASEPA, the clerk has built the house himself, in violation of Article 38 b) of the Law on Public Procurement.

The project also cost more than 2 million euros to the NMC, said the petitioner.

The clerk and the chief accountant, who are the signers of the NMC account, acted in concert to pay the funds to Mr. Nyante, ASEPA said in the petition.

In September 2015, the NMC also bought CCTV cameras at an inflated cost of more than 300%, said the petitioner.

According to the petition, a company, Jin Hong Yi Ltd, was selected without a valid procurement process for the purchase of CCTV cameras for the Board in September 2015.

According to ASEPA, in September 2015, the average market value of 42 high-resolution cameras was 150,000 euros.

In Exhibit 2A attached to the petition, the CNG paid more than 594,000 euros, said the group and decried an excessive cost of 300% for the 42 cameras.

In the allegations of tax evasion, the petitioner explained that in March 2014, a set of furniture had been purchased on instructions from the clerk.

In March 2014, the Board contracted a company called Okore Technology, at the request of the Registrar, to provide furniture to it.

The payment slip created for the payment of this contract, which is attached and entitled Exhibit 1A, indicates that a withholding tax of approximately € 17,688 was recorded in the payment of approximately € 415,688 to Okore Technology.

In total, the tax component relating to this purchase amounted to around € 144,000 after the purchase process.

However, checks made with the Ghana tax authority revealed that in 2014, at the time of this purchase, Okore Technology was not registered with the Ghana Tax Authority. and did not pay taxes to the government, according to the petitioner.

ASEPA indicated that it suspected that the company had been formed by members of the Board to facilitate the awarding of contracts to themselves.

According to ASEPA, when the Council's internal audit unit raised its concerns in November 2015 about allegedly illegal activities in the Council, Felix Nyante wrote a memo asking all prior audits of the unit to stop.

The petitioner claims that this contravenes the public financial management procedures.

Felix Nyante confirmed that he was under investigation by the NMC Board of Directors, who also gave a copy in the petition.

He did not want to confirm or deny the allegations and stated that the Committee had asked him not to speak before the end of his internal investigation.