The government has announced it has acquired 100 Toyota Corolla vehicles worth $8.8 million for the Ghana Police Service.

According to the government, it decided to “retool” the police service after reducing the number of VIP vehicles ordered by the Mahama administration from 43 to 34.

“We have renegotiated the terms of the contract in the following manner; 1. We have reduced the number of vehicles ordered from 43 to 34, which is nine short of the original number.

“2. In place of the nine, we have acquired 100 Toyota Corolla cars for use by the Police Service in line with our commitment to retool the Police Service to enable them play effectively, their role of protecting the Ghanaian people.

“3. We have done all this with a total amount of 8.8 million United States Dollars,” the Minister of Information Mustapha Hamid told the media on Tuesday, February 06, 2018.

He added: “This decision is consistent with our approach towards contracts that we came to meet, where if possible, we have renegotiated the terms to make them more favourable to the Ghanaian people.

“In the Ministry of Education for example, we renegotiated the cost of printing textbooks, which the former government had signed with printers. Instead of 134 million cedis, we renegotiated downwards to 89 million cedis. It is in this same spirt that the Finance Minister asked the Auditor General to audit the financial liabilities that had been bequeathed to us, and which has revealed that some 5.4 billion cedis of legacy debts are dodgy.”

Below is the full statement on the VIP Fleet:

GOVERNMENT STATEMENT ON ACCEPTANCE OF VIP FLEET IMPORTED BY THE FORMER GOVERNMENT OF PRESIDENT MAHAMA

We have invited you this morning to the Ministry of Information to update you on government’s position regarding 43 VIP fleet of vehicles that were ordered by the government of President Mahama on the 3rd of January 2017, just days before handing over power to the government of President Akufo-Addo.

The last time we gave you an update was on the 20th of July 2017, when I granted an interview to Richard Sky on the “Point Blank” segment of Citi FM’s Eyewitness News. For reference to this story, check from Citifmonline, the story titled, “We’ll Accept 43 New Cars if…” In that interview, I said among other things, that, “…I think that if the contract to buy the cars was awarded transparently, nothing wrong with the transaction and they have been bought with state money, I think in my view, we will have to take them.”

I hereby report to the Ghanaian people through you, that government has accepted the VIP fleet, having come to the conclusion that

1. Government is bound by the terms of the contract signed with Amalgamated Securities Limited

2. Abrogating the contract may incur significant liabilities for government. In doing so, government has however made sure to obtain maximum gain for the public purse and also for ensuring the security of the state. The government of President Mahama ordered 43 VIP vehicles at a cost of 9.1 million United States Dollars.

We have renegotiated the terms of the contract in the following manner;

1. We have reduced the number of vehicles ordered from 43 to 34, which is nine short of the original number.

2. In place of the nine, we have acquired 100 Toyota Corolla cars for use by the Police Service in line with our commitment to retool the Police Service to enable them play effectively, their role of protecting the Ghanaian people.

3. We have done all this with a total amount of 8.8 million United States Dollars.

This decision is consistent with our approach towards contracts that we came to meet, where if possible, we have renegotiated the terms to make them more favourable to the Ghanaian people. In the Ministry of Education for example, we renegotiated the cost of printing textbooks, which the former government had signed with printers. Instead of 134 million cedis, we renegotiated downwards to 89 million cedis. It is in this same spirt that the Finance Minister asked the Auditor General to audit the financial liabilities that had been bequeathed to us, and which has revealed that some 5.4 billion cedis of legacy debts are dodgy.

We remain committed to our goal of protecting the public purse, while ensuring value for money and securing the greater good of the Ghanaian people.

Thank you for coming and God bless our home land Ghana.

Hon. Mustapha Hamid Minister for Information