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$178m KelniGVG Deal: GACC to Sue for Documents

The Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC) has said it is considering dragging the Ministry of Communication to court to compel them to release documents covering the $178 million revenue monitoring deal between the ministry and private firm KelniGVG.

In a response to a request by some 22 Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) including GACC for documents on the controversial deal, the ministry said they were still searching for the documents and will let the CSOs have them when the documents are found.

“We acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 30th May, 2018. We are currently in the process of locating the available records and will get back to you shortly on this matter,” the letter, signed by Anastasia Marfo Attafuah, an official at the MoC noted.

But the response has not gone down well with the Coalition.

Communications officer of GACC, Abdul Kudus Hussein, told Class 91.3FM on Thursday, 14 June 2018 that: “As a coalition, we are very disappointed that the Ministry of Communication will reply to our letter after we sent the letter two weeks ago telling us that they are still in the process of locating the document”.

“It is a very disrespectful joke for the ministry to send us that reply”, he complained.

He added that the coalition is “looking at instituting a court action” to compel the ministry to produce the documents.

For him, it is either the ministry is engaging in a cover-up or there is incompetence at the institution.

“It is either the contract is fishy so there is some information that the ministry doesn’t want to be made known or poor documentation system at the ministry,” he noted.

According to him, government institutions owe citizens a right to information and to ensure transparency.

“This KelniGVG contract has not passed the integrity process that is why we think that some of these information can be accessed to make value judgement to put this matter to rest,” he concluded.

Kelni GVG has a contract to build, operate and transfer (BOT) government’s common monitoring platform for the telecom industry.

Under the contract, the company will offer four key services: real-time domestic and international traffic monitoring, revenue assurance, mobile money monitoring and fraud management, which they have started.

They are to do so in close collaboration with staff of the NCA and Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA), on behalf of the Finance and Communications Ministries, who the Communications Service Tax (CST) law enjoins to do real-time monitoring of telecoms traffic for revenue purposes among other things.

The terms of the deal have raised red flags among the CSOs.

Source: ClassFMonline

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