22 CSOs demand details of $178 KelniGVG deal

Think tanks and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have written to the Ministry of Communication, Ministry of Finance and the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to demand details of the controversial $178 KelniGVG deal.

The CSOs and think tanks are about 22 in number.

The KelniGVG deal is a common monitoring platform meant to ensure optimum revenue mobilisation for the government from the telcos. The company is to undertake the contract for the design, development and implementation of the common platform for traffic monitoring, revenue assurance and mobile money monitoring.

However, think tank IMANI Africa described the deal as fraudulent and demanded that they abrogate the deal.

Meanwhile, the Minority in parliament has demanded an independent probe into the deal.

The CSOs presented a letter dated 30 May 2018 and signed by the Executive Director of Ghana Centre for Democratic Governance (CDD), Professor H.K. Prempeh.

It said that we “request in fulfillment of our duties as citizens, as enshrined in Article 41 (f) of the 1992 Constitution, which enjoins us, ‘to protect and preserve public property and expose and combat misuse and wastage of public funds and property’”.

Representatives from the following organisations are part of the CSOs making the request:

Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), Ghana Centre for Democratic Governance (CDD), Afrobarometer, Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) , Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Africa Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP), Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG), SEND-Ghana, Penplusbytes, Financial Accountability and Transparency-Accra (FAT-Africa), ISODEC/CSO Oil and Gas Platform, IMANI-Ghana, Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI)/RTI Coalition, Centre for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA) and the Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA).