Former Member of Parliament for Sekondi, Andrew Egyapa Mercer, has said that the Mahama administration can never have any justification for awarding contracts based on sole sourcing.
This was based on the view they expressed on sole source contracts under the previous Akufo-Addo administration.
He recounted that the NDC accused the Akufo-Addo government of abusing sole-sourcing.
He said awarding contracts based on sole source by the NDC is a clear deception.
“The Ministry of Roads cannot justify why all these projects have been awarded under sole sourcing. They accused the past NPP government of abusing sole sourcing, so what has changed?” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, March 28.
Prior to his comment, Deputy Minister of Roads and Highways, Alhassan Suhuyini, had said the national democratic Congress (NDC) still stands by what they said about sole sourced contracts when they were in opposition.
He said it was the NDC’s view that the previous administration wantonly used sole sourcing to award contracts that led to inflated contracts.
“What we said about sole sourcing, we still stand by it. We said it was wantonly being used and leading to inflated contracts, which affects the quality of work. We still stand by that,” he said in response to the Fourth Estate documentary.
Suhuyini further said he did not see any scandal in the publication by the Fourth Estate on the Big Push project.
He said that when the Fourth Estate advertised that there was a scandal, he was actually waiting to read that scandal.
But after reading and watching the documentary, he said there was nothing scandalous.
“I was eagerly awaiting what the scandal was with the Big Push. They advertised a scandal, and we were waiting for the scandal. They wrote to us and requested information regarding these contracts, and we promptly responded without any qualms as the laws require. Even before that we started uploading this information on our website.
“We were anticipating. My first disappointment was that the publication suggested that if you criticised something in the past and you were seen to be doing it, then in itself it is scandalous. At best, you can say it is a double standard or hypocrisy, but that is not a scandal,” Suhuyini pointed out.
