O-G Accuses A-G Of Giving "Vacuous, Trifling Excuse" And "Unconstitutional Stonewalling"

Socio-political non-partisan pressure group, OccupyGhana, has backed its words with action by resorting to court action to compel the Attorney-General make public all information surrounding the recent Smartty’s Bus branding of 116 Metro Mass Transit buses.

The group, had earlier last week, written to the Attorney-General and Minister for Transport requesting all information on the contract impugned by the A-G after it was revealed the Transport Ministry paid Smarttys Management and Productions 3.6 million for carrying out that work.

Expressing surprise that the Attorney-General, after "having discovered and written on all the grave infractions of the law in a report to the Chief of Staff", is now denying Ghanaians access to critical information about the country's national purse and its use, and accused the chief legal advisor to the government of "illegal and unconstitutional stonewalling". 

The GH¢3.6 bus branding transaction between the Ministry of Transport and Smarttys Management & Productions Limited set tongues wagging, leading to the investigation conducted by the A-G at the request of the Chief of Staff.

In the wake of the massive public outcry, Minister of Transport Dzifa Attivor resigned and the Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah ordered the Attorney General and Minister for Justice to recover GH¢1.9 million from Smartty’s Management Limited.

The total amount to be refunded was later reviewed from GH¢1.9 million to GH¢1,548,608.04 because of the revised Value Added Tax position, revised Withholding Tax position and a set-off of GH¢27,173.74, being over-deduction of withholding tax on the original payment.

The money is to be repaid by the end of March this year.

But clearly not satisfied with the case ending with the resignation and refund, OccupyGhana threatened a law suit against government when it wrote to the A-G and Transport Minister asking for all information on the contract; a request which was turned down with the explanation that case is before court.

However, the group, in a statement issued on Sunday, February 7th, fired back saying it firmly holds the belief that per the A-G's "vacuous and trifling nature of" excuse, the government has something to hide and "instructed its lawyers to forthwith commence legal action to right this grave wrong."

"We are amazed that the Attorney-General is hiding behind an unknown principle to deny access to information that might reveal that the bus branding job was actually concluded and the figure of roughly GH¢3.6 million communicated to the Ministry of Finance for payment to Smarttys, even before the same Ministry of Transport wrote to Smartty’s for a quotation for the job; and that even before the same Ministry of Transport applied for approval for single-source procurement from the Public Procurement Authority (“PPA”), proffering what is at best described as dubious, shameful and pathetic grounds for that single-source procurement. We are surprised that the Attorney-General is trying to hide from Ghanaians the fact that it took the PPA barely 24 hours to grant the single-source procurement approval. We are saddened that the Attorney-General wants to hide from Ghanaians the fact that the contract document covering a transaction of this magnitude was on just two (2) pages of paper with absolutely no warranties, defects liability period, or events of default clauses to protect the interest of the people of Ghana, and that that dubious contract was never submitted to the Attorney-General before it was signed....

"We have therefore considered these grave matters and have decided that if the Attorney-General is unprepared, unwilling and unable to respect the right of the citizen to information, then we have no other recourse but to resort to court action, unfortunately....

"OccupyGhana® has therefore instructed its lawyers to forthwith commence legal action to right this grave wrong," the statement read.


Read the full statement below