Policy think tank, IMANI Africa has called on President Akufo-Addo to intervene in the controversial 178 million dollars Kelni GVG deal.
The deal which is, among others, to assure revenue mobilisation within the telecommunications industry caused a stir, with some civil society players calling for its abrogation; and the telcos raising data protection concerns.
In the Communications Ministry’s latest correspondence on the concerns, it says filtering mechanisms had been instituted to assure data protection.
However, President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe, in a Citi News interview said the Ministry’s comments show that a lot still is needed to be done about the deal.
“There are so many things being hidden about this deal that we need to know. I think President Nana Addo ought to be on top of this matter. I have not heard him speak and I am worried. This Kelni GVG deal is a candidate for opaqueness, it is a candidate for waste, it is a candidate for aggravated possible corruption, “ said Franklin Cudjoe.
His comments come barely a day after he raised concerns over government’s delay in locating the contract documents for the revenue monitoring Common Platform.
This is after Ghana Anti Corruption Coalition wrote to request the contract details on May 30, 2018.
Ministry of Communications’ response to the Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition on June 11 said: “We are currently in the process of locating the available records.”
However, Mr Cudjoe in a statement raised concerns about the delay, saying “Folks, your ministry has signed a $178m contract with your money to locate in real time, apparently stolen revenues by the telcos. And yet it cannot locate all the documents it signed for the deal after two weeks.”
Two individuals, Sara Asafu-Adjaye and Maximus Amertogoh, have already filed a case restraining the government from implementing the Common Platform.
The two are concerned with the privacy of Ghanaians.
KelniGVG was given an $89 million contract to develop and oversee the Common Platform for the country.
The implementation of the Common Platform is in line with the Communication Service Tax (Amendment) Act, 2013, Act 864.
However, IMANI Africa is pushing for an abrogation of the contract on the basis that it mirrors the state’s controversial deals with Suba Infosolutions and Afriwave Telecom Ltd in 2010 and 2016 respectively.
Source, citifmonline.com
Posted by Ivan-Kyei innocent
