The office of the President has been caught in a COVID-19 contract scandal relating to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s Executive Order for disinfection exercise in some public institutions including schools as the Ministry of Education prepared to reopen schools after a pandemic-induced closure.

A trailer from a Manasseh Azure Awuni investigation sighted by GhanaWeb, indicates that the government of Ghana had no contract awarded to Zoomlion, the company that was contracted to undertake the fumigation exercise.

The trailer, published on Manasseh’s official Facebook page had Osei Bonsu (OB) Amoah saying that, the spraying exercise Zoomlion is undertaking does not kill any virus.

“It doesn’t kill the virus. Whoever says this spraying is to kill the virus (Coronavirus) is not being truthful,” OB Amoah, the Deputy Minister for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development is heard saying.

About the fumigation contract

The Government of Ghana was cited in a 67-paged document put together by the Community Development Alliance.

The report accused the government of engaging in irregular procurement practices that violate Ghana’s procurement laws, regulations, codes, and international conventions and best practices.

On the disinfection and fumigation of public institutions across the country, including markets and schools, the Corruption Risk Assessment report said Zoomlion was awarded the contract based on sole sourcing.

“Contract for nation-wide disinfection and fumigation of over 464 markets was awarded to Zoomlion on sole-source basis, in addition to another contract by the Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service to disinfect and fumigate over 850 High Schools across Ghana and 3700 schools in the Greater Accra region,” myjoyonline quoted part of the report.

Source: Ghanaweb