*Massive Conflict Of Interests Hold Back Counting Process*

*Castle Steps In To Wipe Out Dr. Grace Bediako’s Mess*

The Herald has picked very troubling signals about the ongoing multi-million dollar 2010 Population and Housing Census which could mar the value and beauty of the exercise meant for national development planning purposes.

A whopping 50 million United States Dollars has been provided by the Mills-led government with the assistance of some donor partners, and certain elements inside the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) are up and about massively scheming to get a huge bite on the cash by all means possible.

Insiders told The Herald that as planned, the vicious ploys have resulted in an artificial shortage in the census questionnaires; the reason why millions of Ghanaians are yet to be counted over a week after the exercise began with President John Mills cutting short his investment trip to Asia, to boost people’s morale in the Census exercise.

So messy was the situation that The Castle, specifically the Chief of Staff, Mr. John Henry Newman, had to personally step in to have the difficulties addressed to rescue the census from a near collapse.

Contrary to what Ghanaians were told, the whole process towards the award of the contract to print the Census Questionnaires was started very late by Statistical Service. The printer started work with only 13 days to the start of the census.

September 26, 2010 was long announced as the census date, however, tender was opened on August 18, 20010, with the contract awarded on September 7, 2010 but without the final version of the Census questionnaire.

On September 8, 2010 when the final version of the questionnaire was submitted, the printer, Compuprint, had to wait for additional five working days – September 13 2010 – on the Ghana Statistical Service, to get clearance to commence printing but with an order to do so within a month.

Even after giving out the job late, the service kept changing the format of the Census Questionnaire, all in attempt to frustrate the printer, and this led to the shortfall. The government has been pushed to the brink, and Jospon, Oti Yeboah Press, Buck Press, Type Press, Frontiers Innolink and Uni Precision, interestingly owned by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, and hugely favoured by the service, are to help salvage a situation deliberately created.

The companies, The Herald was informed, took part in the competitive tender, but were completely outclassed by Compuprint, owned by Carl Ernest Vanderpuye in terms of cost, quality art work and security at the printing press.

Shockingly, at the heart of these plots are Dr. Grace Bediako, the Government Statistician herself and her deputy, Opoku Manu Asare. The two were mentioned as having schemed to have their favourite printing houses print the Census Questionnaires after their earlier attempt to give the job to a foreign firm was stopped by government.

One Yaw Antwi-Adjei, identified as a consultant on the 2010 Census, has also been mentioned as part of the scheme. He was said to have lost out during the competitive tender for the printing job but was later engaged by the Statistical Service as a consultant to work with the printing company, Compuprint.

The three kept changing the format of the Census Questionnaire, leading to a huge shortfall in the questionnaires, and the government was last week forced to rectify the situation and save itself from the embarrassment by awarding part of the contract to the companies which lost the bid.

So intense was the scheme that even when the Ghana Statistical Service Board chaired by Prof. Francis Dodoo, had given approval for the winner to be awarded the printing contract, a document was clandestinely sent to the Central Tender Board chaired by Sallas Mensah, totally different from what the board had decided.

Meanwhile, carrier bags meant for the enumerators which had been ordered by the Ghana Statistical Service from abroad, are still on the high seas although the exercise is ongoing.

Information picked up as at last Saturday, was that both government and Ghana Statistical Service risk being dragged to court by the owners of Compuprint for breach of contract. This is because although a contract had been signed, and is being executed, the service, without any prior notice, had taken back part of the contract and re-awarded it.

Prof. Dodoo confirmed the difficulties that the Census is going through, but told The Herald that alternative arrangements have been made for the loosing printers to help execute the job on time for the Census to meet the agreed closing date. He would rather speak on the issue when the Census is completed.

Insiders, however, insist that the artificial shortage was created to pave way for the favoured companies which lost the competitive tender process to also get their share of the US$50 million.

Mr. Vanderpuye, when reached by The Herald, also confirmed his troubles with the Statistical Service, and his plans to take legal actions against the service for breach of contract.

He explained that he has invested a lot of money to buy paper, imported specialized machines and engaged the services of over 450 people who are working day and night to complete the printing of the Questionnaires on schedule, however, the machinations from the service is affecting his work and his reputation as a printer.

The Herald learnt that although Compuprint got the contract at a cost of Gh¢7 million, the GSS took Gh¢1 million out of the contact sum and gave it to its favourite companies to also print some of the questionnaires, contrary to the government’s directive.

In a letter dated September 27 and signed by the Deputy Government Statistician, Mr. Opoku Manu Asare, the service instructed Compuprint to stop work and “change the printing format from A4 to A3 using the same image with perforation in the middle of each A3 sheet for easy separation into A4,” thus completely disorganizing the whole printing process.

Shortly thereafter, the Statistical Service again ordered the printer to, once again, stop using the A3 papers and revert to the earlier A4 design which had been stopped earlier.

The delays in tender opening, awarding the contract for printing, submission of the final version of the questionnaire, approval to print as well as the intermittent stop work orders from the Statistical Service, have led to the artificial shortages, and now, the failed companies would also print the questionnaires, and have a bite of the money.

Yaw Antwi-Adjei denied being a consultant for the GSS on the census. He has insisted that he only won a bid to supply a data capturing software, which he has done. He also denied bidding for the printing job as claimed, and directed The Herald to speak with Ghana Statistical Service.

Mr. Manu Asare would not comment on what caused the shortfall, except to say that the issue has now been solved. He told The Herald on Saturday that he was in Wa, the Upper West Regional capital, solving another problem confronting the census, hence would want to address the questions on tomorrow.