… over claims of US$35M blown on luxury cars
IMANI Ghana’s Vice President in charge of Research, Mr. Bright Simons, has refused to apologize to former Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo, after Mr. Osafo Maafo demanded an apology over Mr. Simons query to him for allegedly blowing US$35million that the government had borrowed from the World Bank for public sector reforms on luxury cars.
In a defiant tweet, Mr. Simons insisted on getting answers to the question as to why the government went to borrow money in the name of reforming the public sector only to turn around and use most of it to buy SUVs.
“In 2018, Ghana went to the World Bank to borrow US$35million to help transform its public sector. In a recent review, I tweeted that the bulk of the disbursed amount is going into buying cars. The Senior Minister/OSPA sent a rejoinder. I am doubling down – is Ghana’s Senior Minister buying cars with World Bank money in the name of reforms?” he wrote.
Mr Simons’ encore comes after Osafo Maafo who is now having a job description as Senior Presidential Advisor, wrote a rejoinder to the earlier question by Bright Simons.
In a letter signed by a Technical Advisor to Yaw Osafo-Maafo, it claimed that the vehicles that were procured by the then Office of the Senior Minister were done in the name of some 16 selected public sector institutions and for specific reasons.
“It is worth noting that the vehicles including the saloons and station wagons and the motorbikes were procured for the 16 Selected Entities (selected public sector institutions) in the year 2020 for an amount of GH¢8,476,784.80 and not December 2019. Further to this expenditure, additional funds were disbursed and have been committed for other procurement activities (especially COVID 19 IT equipment support) and consultancy services,” parts of the rejoinder said.
The rejoinder further advised Bright Simons to apprise himself with the details of what the monies were spent on before going to town on the issue.
It is not clear if Mr Bright Simons had had the opportunity for a face-to-face with Osafo Maafo, but he is back on Twitter, standing his ground against the scandal-prone Osafo Maafo who is also the same person who had dubious paid US$1million to UK-based Kroll and Associates for no work done while he was Senior Minister.
When the former Auditor-General Daniel Yaw Domelevo started digging into the dubious payment, the Akufo Addo Jubilee House simply sacked him, allowing Osafo Maafo to walk free.