The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Ghana First Company Limited GFCL, Frank Akuley has challenged the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development Designate, Hon. O. B. Amoah to come clear on his response to the vetting committee regarding the Ghana First toilet projects.
It would be recalled that, O. B, Amoah when he appeared before the vetting committee, was asked questions regarding the status of the Ghana First Project.
However, the CEO of Ghana First Company Limited, Frank Akuley, said the response given by O.B. Amoah is not the true reflection of the status of the project and that O. B. Amoah should have gone into details so as to clear all doubts surrounding the project.
He also noted that O. B. Amoah’s response lacks all the details including the Clauses that established the Project between Government of Ghana, the Company and Contractors.
Frank Akuley however indicated that before the commencement of the project, the then Minister, Joseph Kofi Adda, wrote a letter introducing the company (GFCL) to the various Assemblies and invite them to accord the company their utmost assistance to ensure this laudable project come into fruition in their district after the ministry had subjected the facility to technical and financial reviews and its viability and sustainability which was not in doubt.
The same Minister also signed another letter titled “Letter of Support” introducing GFCL to the financial institutions for financial support and assistance.
Frank Akuley also enumerated that Hon. O. B. Amoah who was then the Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, wrote and signed a letter on 9th August, 2017 upon which Ghana First Company Ltd entered into a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with the various MMDAs to construct ultramodern automated toilet facilities across all MMDAs across the country.
The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) agreement signed between GFCL and the Assemblies was for 30 years.
Below are the Clauses which established the contract:
Sections of the agreement between GFCL and the Assemblies state that;
Section 3 ii. “That the Project Partner hereby covenants that the land it shall provide shall be its self-acquired land with title, right and or interest in the said land having vested in the Project Partner. Furthermore, the land so provided shall be vested to the project owner who is authorized to use the respective land for the purpose of securing funding only for this project.”
In view of the fact that the Land Title Deeds covering the lands provided were not available, the Assembly signed an undertaking in support of section 3 ii that it was in the process of securing the land title document on the lands provided by the assembly and that the registered documents covering all the lands provided by the Assembly shall be submitted to Ghana First Company Limited within 4 (four) calendar months for onward delivery to our Bankers.
Section 3 v “That the Project Partner shall ensure that the Assembly itself, agents, privies, assigns, servants, workmen whomsoever or otherwise howsoever during the tenure of any government shall not dispossess the Project Owner from its ownership and that no person at law shall take over the property comprised in the project herein either permanent or temporarily and that the project is indemnified against all government interferences. All related legal cost arising out of government interferences shall be borne by the Assembly.”
Section 3 xi. “That the Project Partner shall at all time during the tenancy of this agreement ensure that there is at all times security to protect the facility from any form of destruction whilst the Project Owner shall be responsible for the maintenance and uninterrupted operation of the facility.”
In view of the foregoing, some of the assemblies have teamed up with some contractors to open and operate the same Clean Ghana Sanitation PPP Turn Key projects of Ghana First Company Limited on the same Lands which has been vested in Ghana First Company Limited without company consent and approval.
Ghana First Company Ltd then entered into agreement with all the contractors who were to build the toilet facilities.
According to the agreement signed between Ghana First and the contractors,
Clause 5(iv) states that”, that the contractor agrees that the Contract is a TURN KEY PROJECT and that the Contractor shall be paid only upon full completion and hand over of the entire project”.
Clause 39.1 of the agreement between GFCL and the Contractors states that “Without prejudice to Clause 5 v of the contract agreement, the Employer reserves the right to pay part of the total sum amounting to 60% of the quantum sum after collaborative site visit and inspection is done by the employer, the bankers and the contractor.
The employer therefore, without any doubt reserves the right to uphold this said payment when defects are detected after the collaborative site visit and inspection. Payment will therefore be done after these defects are remedied by the contractor”.
It however emerged that not a single contractor has handed over a completed project to GFCL.
