Osafo-Marfo’s Backdoor us$ 40m Port Management Deal to Crony swerves Bawumia

Whatsup News has gathered that operators of UNI-Pass, the new US$40 million port management system being pushed by Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo and the Jubilee House (UNI-PASS), have swerved a demonstration meeting with Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia.

This cancellation is coming on the heels of an earlier disastrous performance in Takoradi on Friday, February 21, 2020, when its operators- Ghana Link Network Limited and Korean Customs UNI-PASS International Agency (CUPIA) failed to demonstrate value for money that the new system is better than the existing system operated by the Ghana Community Network Services Limited (GCNet).

Another meeting was promptly organised for today Tuesday, February 25, 2020 for UNI-PASS to provide further and better particulars. Reliable sources close to the project have told Whatsup News that this meeting has been cancelled as it becomes obvious that they are not bringing any more superior technology than is already being operated by GCNET for Ghana paperless port management system.

It is reported that the cancellation was prompted by Mr. Osafo Marfo, who has been fingered as the hatchet man in pushing through this questionable contract.

Despite the obvious inability to prove its superiority, Osafo Marfo in a letter intercepted by Whatsup News has tried to buy out GCNET, saying the Akufo Addo administration was ready to pay GCNET US$ 120 million to be able to take over their systems for UNI-PASS.

The Senior Minister was explicit in the letter that the administration will circumvent the Finance Ministry and Parliament to make this payment possible for GCNET which still has a valid contract with Ghana till 2023.

Ghana Link Network is owned by one Nick Danso Adjei who is believed to be particularly close to the Jubilee House bigwigs and Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo.

Incidentally, US$ 40 million contract signed on March 29, 2018, was authorised to be sole-sourced by the disgraced Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA), Mr. Adjenim Boateng Adjei who was caught in insider-trading deals at the PPA.

For two years since the contract was signed, UNI-PASS has consistently failed to prove itself worthy of the contract. Interestingly, the UNI-PASS contract with the government of Ghana with a copy in the possession of Whatsup News, clearly stated that if UNI-PASS failed to meet its condition precedents in six months, the contract could be nullified.

“In any of the conditions aforegoing have not been satisfied within six (6) months after the execution of this Agreement, and if the scope of Services and activities relating hereto have yet to commence, the contractor may but not be obliged, to terminate…,” read portions of the contract.

Part of the condition precedent is for UNI-PASS to convince GCNET to abandon their own 10-year contract and hand over their infrastructure to them.

Meanwhile, several stakeholders in the port manage have warned the Akufo Addo administration that the UNI-PASS system is a disaster waiting to happen, because they do not have the requisite infrastructure and would have to rely on the system built by GCNET-their competitors.

For instance, the Ghana Institute of Freight Forwarders (GIFF), warned last year that the UNI-PASS deal will derail paperless port management systems championed by Vice President Bawumia.

Also, policy think-tank IMANI has done an extensive analysis showing how the UNI-PASS system being pushed by the Senior Minister was a scam.

“The present arrangement looks like the government is handing over the contract ‘on a silver platter’, at no evident cost, to the contractor herein, and then also grants them generous terms and wide latitude to operate, without proving either their capability or producing proof upfront of what they bring in terms of investment and other resources. This will, no doubt, attract suspicions of undue influence,” it said IMANI in a statement released a few days ago.

According to IMANI, Ghana Link and its overseas partner, CUPIA Korea, gave an impression that it had the capacity to deliver better than GCNET, made the government to believe that they had a superior system to the current vendors, GCNeT and West Blue, arguing rather that after almost two years of getting the sole-sourced contract, Ghana Link had not been able to deliver on its promise to build a superior system to deploy.