Jospong Group of Companies, has described a publication by myjoyonline.com which suggested that the $74 million (GHS318 million) contract awarded the firm to supply one million waste bins and 900,000 bin liners has been inflated by at least $31.1 million (GHS130 million) as inaccurate and is asking the media house to retract the said story or face legal action.

A statement signed by Sophia Lissah, Group Head of Communication for the company said the price was not inflated indicating that “a major component of the contract is the transportation and distribution of the bins to households within the 216 districts in Ghana by the companies involved which has additional cost implications, and same was factored into the pricing”.

According to an investigation by Multimedia’s Manasseh Azure, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development awarded a contract for the supply of 155,000 waste bins for distribution in the district assemblies across the country. One of Jospong's companies, Universal Plastic Product and Recycling Ltd, sold each of the 240litre bin to the state at GH¢258 but a pro forma invoice from the same company quotes the price at GH¢135.

Reacting to the claims, Jospong Group says the report is malicious and a calculated attempt to tarnish the image of the company.

“It must be placed on record that none of the five companies has supplied any item under the contract and neither has any payment been made by the Ministry of Local Government to the said companies. The reports and statements in the Multimedia Group, authored by Manasseh Azure Awuni, to the effect that the contract price has been inflated in excess of one hundred and thirty million Ghana cedis (GH¢130,000,000.00) is, therefore, grossly misleading and unfortunate to say the least. Clearly, there was no wrong doing in the procurement or award of the contract,” the statement said.

Jospong Group has hinted of a legal action should Multimedia fail to retract the said publication.

“Accordingly, we call on Joy FM and its sister stations to retract the defamatory statements made against the Jospong Group and the Chief Executive of the Jospong Group, Dr. Joseph Siaw Agyepong, within three days upon receipt of this rejoinder, failing which the company may be constrained to take any further action that it deems appropriate without further recourse to the Multimedia Group," the statement added.