...- ?500m blown on Burma Camp gate

The Ghanaian Chronicle reports that aside the financial malpractice committed by the previous heads of the Ministry of Defence, further probing has exposed a reckless trend of expenditure and the clandestine award of contracts at outrageous cost.

Investigations showed that the Ministry of Defence, last year awarded yet another minor contract at an outrageous cost of ?500 million to Messrs KASAP Ltd, a private construction company which has enjoyed decades of monopoly over Armed Forces contracts.

The contract which is in connection with the construction of an arch at the Check Point in Burma, near Congo Junction, was not open to tender for competitive bidding as the then Armed Forces High Command secretly hatched a direct negotiation with KASAP because they claimed that the company had a lot of resources.

The former Chief Director of the Ministry of Defence, Mr S.S. Sakka, admitted to a Chronicle enquiry, through the Armed Forces Public Relations Directorate that "The contract is a direct negotiated contract...It was not advertised for bidding. The contract was negotiated with only one company because the Armed Forces was looking for a company that could execute this job promptly and favourably."

Meanwhile, sources at the Ministry of Defence have expressed their disquiet to the paper over the awarding of the contract, saying that if it was done in an open and transparent manner the cost of the project would have reduced drastically.