GHANA- Thursday, August 6, 2020/– The Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye has instructed the Communications Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful to appear in Parliament to answer questions on the revenue accrued so far by the Kelni GVG monitoring system.
According to the Minority in Parliament, the Minister has failed to appear in Parliament on three consecutive occasions to provide an account on the implementation thus far.
According to the Speaker of Parliament, the Minister was expected to be present in the House on Monday but did not show up.
Prof. Oquaye has directed that she makes herself available on Friday, August 7, 2020, to answer relevant questions on the matter.
“I notice that no answer has been placed on record. I direct that the Minister must answer all the relevant questions and make herself available on Friday to answer the relevant questions,” Prof. Oquaye said.
Kelni GVG was contracted by the government to design and supervise the Common Platform for traffic monitoring, revenue assurance and mobile money monitoring. The implementation of the Common Platform is in line with the Communication Service Tax (Amendment) Act, 2013, Act 864.
The deal has received a lot of criticism from policy think tank IMANI Africa, cost the country, $89 million.
IMANI Africa also raised issues on privacy concerns while questioning the credibility of Kelni GVG.
It also maintained that the deal mirrors the controversial agreements the state entered into with Subah Infosolutions and Afriwave Telcom Ltd in 2010 and 2016 respectively.
IMANI had earlier petitioned the Vice President to revoke the contract.
The Communications Minister, however, has dismissed allegations of corruption and underhand dealings in awarding the revenue assurance monitoring contract to Kelni GVG.
She also mentioned in Parliament that, the accusations of corruption and underhand dealings are unnecessary.
Despite the controversy surrounding the contract, the government has assured that the necessary due diligence was carried out during the processes that led to the selection of Kelni GVG.
Kelni GVG’s monitoring system begun in 2018.
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I’m Deborah Aba Narkoah. I’m an avid reader, writer and public speaker.
