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Pressure mounts on government over West Blue Saga

The case brought against the government by a freight forwarder, Michael Kweku Gyan questioned government's decision to award the contract to West Blue using sole sourcing basis.

Alexander Afenyo Markins

Government is being accused of misleading the High Court in a case challenging its decision to award West Blue Company Limited the contract to undertake destination inspection duties at the ports.

The case brought against the government by a freight forwarder, Michael Kweku Gyan questioned government's decision to award the contract to West Blue using sole sourcing basis.

He had prayed the court to allow for direct competitive bidding for the destination inspection duties at the port.

But in a ruling last week, the court declared there was no evidence suggesting a contract had been awarded West Blue.

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Lawyer for the complainant, Alexander Afenyo Markins, says new evidence has emerged which points to the fact that government has been engaging West Blue.

He recalled the court ruling that there was no evidence that the Ministry of Finance and Public Procurement Authority had acted on a letter written by Chief of Staff directing that West Blue be given the contract.

But he said a letter dated 30th July 2015 signed by a Deputy Commissioner of Customs in charge of Operations, Frederick Gavor, exposes government’s stance in court which the court based its ruling on.

“As part of preparations towards the final take-over of Classification, Valuation and Risk Management functions from the Destination Inspection Companies, the following arrangements have been agreed on at a meeting held at Ministry of Finance with West Blue and GCNet participating,” the letter to the Chief of Staff read in part.

Afenyo Markins told Joy News: “So clearly these meetings preceded this letter, so government through the Ministry of Finance was doing things in furtherance of the directive of the Chief of Staff.

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“At the time the A-G filed his written submission, government knew that they were in fact going ahead with the award of the contract or in preparation towards a takeover in favour of West Blue.

“So why did government through the Attorney General come to court to deny…obviously the very application filed was so done in bad faith and was done to deceive the court which they succeeded in doing.”

Afenyo Markins has therefore gone back to court to resurrect the case asking the court to stop West Blue from taking over the destination inspection duties at the ports through sole sourcing.

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