Cost of 350 abandoned MASLOC vehicles inflated to GHS18m

General News of Tuesday, February 5, 2019

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2019-02-05

The Joy News survey revealed that the cost of 350 vehicles purchased in 2016 by the Microfinance and Small Loans Center (MASLOC) for private transport operators cost the state more than 18 million GHS .

This price is higher than the market price of vehicles from the same supplier.

The vehicles were purchased for the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU), but the transport operators rejected the vehicles because of alleged price inflation.

Manbadeh Azure Awuni has spent the last seven months investigating the immobilization of various vehicles purchased by the state.

In the first of the series entitled Grounded Wheels, Manbadeh explained why MASLOC vehicles have been parked since 2016.

The 350 vehicles are parked in the National Security Court, behind the Accra International Conference Center in Accra.

Some of the salon cars were completely covered with weeds. Vehicles include 100 Isuzu buses with 33 seats, 100 Chevrolet Sparklite lounge cars and 150 Chevy Aveo salon cars.

MASLOC purchased these vehicles in 2016 for the Ghana Private Road Transport Union, but they rejected them.

Stephen Amoah, president and CEO of MASLOC, said the transport union had rejected the vehicles because they were too expensive.

As part of the investigation, Joy News contacted the vehicle supplier, Mac Autos and Spareparts Ghana Limited, in August 2018, two months after the sale of the vehicles to MASLOC.

According to the company, vehicle prices in 2016 are lower than those of 2018, but our investigation revealed that the cost at which the company sold the vehicles to MASLOC in 2016 is far superior the cost at which it was sold to the public in 2018.

For example, Mac Ghana sold the 33-seat Izuzu bus to the general public in 2018 at $ 79,000, but sold to MASLOC in 2016 at $ 107,000, a difference of $ 28,000 per bus.

The company sold Chevy Sparklite hair salons in 2018 at $ 9,000 but was sold to MASLOC at $ 12,500. By 2018, Mac had stopped selling Chevy Aveo hair salons, but a pro forma invoice from the company dated August 2017, which JoyNews obtained as part of this investigation shows the price of each Chevy Aveo vehicle to $ 14,000.

However, the company provided each of the 150 vehicles to Masloc for $ 18,000.

In total, the cost of vehicles sold to MASLOC is higher than the market price of vehicles of at least $ 3,750,000 or 18,375,000 GHc.

Joy News tried several times to talk to MASLOC's CEO, Sedina Tamakloe Ationu, who signed the contract, but we could not convince her to share her comments. When Joy News wrote to MAC Ghana for an answer, the company denied any wrongdoing. MAC Ghana wrote in a letter to Joy News:

"The reasonable difference between the prices of vehicles sold to MASLOC and those sold to the general public was due to the fact that it was not paid in cash, but over a period of two years interest was put on the price what [the] custom in car purchases. "

The Joy News survey revealed more anomalies with this contract apart from the prices. We obtained a record of all vehicles imported by Mac Ghana from January 2016 to December 2017.

We also obtained details of all vehicles released by the company for which duties were paid. When the details of the vehicles provided to MASLOC were searched, the cleared vehicles were not found.

Checks from the Ghana Revenue Authority confirmed that the company did not pay any fees on the vehicles provided to MASLOC. According to the Ghana Revenue Authority, customs duties on the 350 vehicles amounted to 10,500,000 GHS.

Further investigation revealed that the Ministry of Finance had written to waive the company's obligation pending Parliament's approval, which did not happen. Our investigation revealed, however, that the company was not entitled to an exemption from duties under the terms of the contract.

Article 32 of the contract states: "A supplier is fully responsible for all duties, taxes, royalties, license fees, etc., incurred up to the delivery of the goods under contract to the final destination."

Stephen Amoah, CEO of MASLOC, said the GPRTU had proposed taking the vehicles at a price deemed too low by the government.

GPRTU leaders told Joy News that the union had its own preference for suppliers, but MASLOC insisted on using MAC Ghana. According to GPRTU, MASLOC did not discuss the price with them or sign a contract with them before importing the 350 vehicles.

Kobina Atta-Bedu, a procurement specialist, said the government had committed a series of anomalies in the deal.

He says that the value of vehicles left in the sun since 2016 will surely decrease by now that MASLOC gets interested buyers.

Some stickers in good condition on the vehicles reveal that they were in the country before April 2016.

The fate of the vehicles is not known. What we do know is that, regardless of how the vehicles are sold, the government will have to sell them at a lower price than the one it has paid.