When the Chief of Staff Julius Debra asked the Attorney General to retrieve 1.9 million cedis of the money used by Smarttys Management and Production to rebrand 116 Bus Rapid Transport buses it was the best news that ended 2015.
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Why I want proof of Smarttys payback
Is the Chief of Staff’s directive meant to silence critics and make the government look good in the eyes of the public?
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Of course, coupled with the resignation of the Transport Minister Dzifa Ativor which many thought was honourable.
But the question is, is the Chief of Staff’s directive meant to silence critics and make the government look good in the eyes of the public?
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First of all, isn't it pretty astonishing how such an amount expended from the national kitty went unnoticed by government and the transport ministry only for action to be taken on it when the media brought it up? When will government ever be proactive? But that is another matter for different discussion.
The story broke mid December 2015. The Chief of Staff decided to get the Attorney General to look into the matter, so the Attorney General presented a report and then a directive was issued to retrieve some of the money. A DIRECTIVE is all it is going to be if government is not pushed to make public all receipts of the payment of the money and if there is a payment plan.
Read More: NDC guru's wife branded BRT buses
Precedence
When the Gyeeda Scandal broke the president ordered for the retrieval of monies wrongfully paid to the companies executing the modules under GYEEDA. In 2014 the Deputy Attorney General and Minister for Justice Dominic Ayene said 14 million was recovered but failed to show evidence of payment. So Ghanaians had to just trust the words of the “honest” politician and minister.
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Questions have also been raised about the retrieval of the 51 million cedi Woyome judgment debt ordered by the court. To date it still remains unclear if government has been able to retrieve every single amount from Mr. Woyome.
The above incidents make it very difficult to state confidently that government is not paying lip service in in 3.6 million BRT buses branding saga.
When Pulse.com.gh contacted Smarttys on the 4 of January 2015 to find out if the Attorney General has contacted the company with regards to the payment of the 1.9 million cedis, the PRO of the company Kleff Maxwell Justice said he could not speak on that subject.
“We are not speaking on anything yet,” he said. When asked if the company had been contacted by the Attorney General’s office his response was “I don’t have any information with respect to that I am sorry”.
But Anti-corruption campaigner Vitus Azeem says Ghanaians should not settle for less when it comes to the retrieval of monies paid unlawfully. The Executive Director of the Ghana Integrity Initiative says “it should not be enough for us to just accept both media and civil society to just accept the announcement that they have ordered that the money should be paid.
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“There should be evidence that the money has been paid. They don’t normally give us the evidence except public pronouncements which you cannot verify.”
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