Fear grips auctioned cars buyers …as OSP probes who bought what

There is anxiety among persons who have bought cars auctioned by the State between July 2016 and August 2022 after the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) commenced a probe of all auction sales of vehicles and goods during the period under review.

A statement from the OSP said the investigations would focus on suspected corruption and corruption-related offences in respect of auction sales

Over the years, there has been a general convention in Ghana, though not a written rule, that confiscated vehicles and goods are auctioned by the State mostly to persons who belong to the party in government and persons who have some links to the corridors of power.

Scarcely would a person who is not sympathetic to the Government of the day, get access to

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) left office at the end of the year 2016. The OSP would be investigating just six months of all auction sales under the NDC

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) took office in January 2017 and from that period to August 2022 would sum to a period of 67 months making five years and seven months.

Many persons in the NPP who benefited from the legal auction sales are now anxious after the OSP’s statement as that are not in a position to determine whether the auctioned vehicles or goods they bought would fall under the ones that are being investigated for suspected corruption and corruption-related offences.

Such persons have raised questions as to why the OSP is not starting the investigations from the NDC-led Government era but rather from the NPP led era with just six months of the NDC period.

Kissi Agyabeng, the Special Prosecutor, has shown that he is not the type who would respond to public criticisms or verbal onslaughts. Unlike his predecessor, Kissi would not author long epistles to tell his story or let his emotions known.

Rather, he maintains shut ears and zipped lips with a focused attention, as though he was completely oblivious of public sentiments.

In this instance, no amount of grumblings and frowns seem to have gotten him to back down.

Mr. Agyabeng has written to the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority, and requested that before September 30, 2022, which is just some five weeks away, his Office should be furnished with the following information:

‘The particulars and clear description of all auctioned items between July 2016 and August 2022, the quantity of all auctioned items July 2016 and August 2022, the prices at which the items were auctioned, the date of each auction sales between July 2016 and August 2022 and finally the e full names, addresses, and telephone numbers of the successful bidders at all the auction sales between July 2016 and August 2022.

The Special Prosecutor further directed the Commissioner of the Customs Division to   immediately halt and discontinue all auction sales till the investigation is concluded.

Many have even accused the OSP of taking an unfriendly posture towards the Government of the day in his fight against corruption and corruption related activities.

GRA

Confiscated vehicles and goods are gazette officially before the GRA takes a quota and hands over the rest to the Presidency.

Ordinarily, it should not be a difficult thing for the GRA to account for the gazzated vehicles and items and to state which ones went to the Presidency.

But it should not be surprising if that accountability becomes problematic because the GRA, according to the Auditor-General’s report of 2018, failed to account for some GHS25.5 million realised from the auctioning of some 1,719 vehicles that were auctioned.

“Our reconciliation of Commercial Industrial Bulletin (CIB) and payment of auction and allocation of vehicles per the GCNet system for the period reviewed disclosed that out of 2,388 sampled gazetted vehicles, 1,719 vehicles with an estimated total value of GHS25,500,000 were not accounted for, while the remaining 669 vehicles were disposed of at GHS8,894,187 per the GCNet impromptu system,” the Auditor-General’s annual report on Public Accounts of Ghana (PAG) as of 31 December 2018 on the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), published on Monday, 22 July 2019, stated.

The A-G’s review also showed that the “GRA could not account for a total of 1,719 vehicles auctioned between 2015 and 2017”.

Chief of Staff

Over the years, there have been complaints about how auction sales have been handled selectively and all manner of allegations that have not been substantiated.

Apart from the Chief of Staff’s office, the Confiscated Assets Committee has always been in the news for the wrong reasons and attracted all manner of scandalous allegations.

In one of such instances in 2021, the Chief Director of the Presidency (Jubilee House), H.M. Wood, had to officially issue a statement to deny allegations that the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, was involved in the unlawful auctioning of state property, particularly, some nine vehicles belonging to the Kumasi Technical University (KTU).

“As regards approval for auctions in the public sector, we must indicate that the function used to be performed by the Ministry of Finance during the days of the Provisional National Defense Council until 1993 when the function was taken over by the Office of the President.

“Until then, it was noted that the Ministry of Finance could not do the needed due diligence to establish the true state of property earmarked by MDAs/MMDAs/ Institutions for auction before it gave approval for the exercise. Upon taking over the approval function, the Office of the President established a valuation unit which follows up on requests submitted to the office by the public entities and does verification/assessment of the items, and makes recommendations on whether approval should be given or not for consideration by the Chief of Staff. From the above, it is clear that giving approval for disposal of state property did not start with the current Chief of Staff,” the Chief Director’s memo said.

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