Government Defends Car Deal… Gets 100 More, Saves $300,000

Minister of information, Mustapha Hamid, has disclosed that any attempt by the current government to abrogate the $9.1million presidential car purchase agreement with Amalgamated Securities Limited would have resulted in serious liabilities for government.

He, however, added that it had saved a whopping $300,000 after successfully renegotiating the deal with the company.

Making the disclosure at a press conference in Accra yesterday, the minister said the Akufo-Addo government was bounded by the agreement the John Mahama-led administration signed with the providers of the vehicles, hence the decision to renegotiate the deal to cut the number of presidential vehicles from 43 to 34.

He said as part of the renegotiated deal, government also bought 100 Toyota Corolla cars in place of the nine luxury ones, and still managed to save the state some money.

“We have done all this with a total amount of 8.8 million United States Dollars”, he said.

Hon. Hamid said the essence of renegotiating the deal was to ensure that government made maximum gain for the public purse without compromising the security of the state.

“We have reduced the number of vehicles ordered from 43 to 34, which is nine short of the original number. In place of the nine, we have acquired 100 Toyota Corolla cars for use by the Police Service in line with our commitment to retool the Police Service to enable them play effectively, their role of protecting the Ghanaian people”.

The John Mahama-led administration reportedly ordered the vehicles a few days to handing over to the incoming New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, headed by President Nana Akufo-Addo. This attracted huge public condemnation, with political commentators questioning the wisdom in the deal. The fleet arrived over the weekend with 10 of them being bulletproof vehicles.

In a related development, the minister said government had, in line with its policies, renegotiated other contracts it inherited in other ministries.

“In the Ministry of Education for example, we renegotiated the cost of printing textbooks, which the former government had signed with printers.

“Instead of GH¢134 million, we renegotiated downwards to GH¢89 million. It is in this same spirt that the Finance Minister asked the Auditor General to audit the financial liabilities that had been bequeathed to us, and which has revealed that some 5.4 billion cedis of legacy debts are dodgy”, he stressing that government remains committed to its goal of protecting the public purse, while ensuring value for money.

Source: thePublisher