*EVIL LIES AGAINST OSEI-AMEYAW* .
Facts do not lie and verifiable authentic documents available to THE PUBLISHER newspaper proves that some persons working for Kwesi Twum’s Joy FM were broadcasting a big, nasty and evil lie against Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, Director General of the National Lotteries Authority (NLA) when they serialized news reports that he had signed eleven different contracts, all on one day, to Rams Kitchen, a company that belongs to his sister-in-law and therefore he was involved in a conflict of interest situation.
Documents from the NLA’s procurement department proves that indeed only one contract was signed and not eleven. The one contract that was signed for Rams Kitchen had eleven items which were split into separate lots and Purchase Orders.
Placing ordered items into separate lots is a style that was in existence at the NLA for several years even before the New Patriotic Party (NPP) won political power and appointed Osei-Ameyaw as Director General.
On page 3, are official documents from the NLA to prove that even under the former administration, Purchase Orders were not bulked together but rather itemized into separate lots with each lot having a separate LPO.
The documents show the LPOs of a 2016 contract given to one company, ALFURQAN VENTURES but the Local Purchasing Order (LOP) were split into several lots. All LPOs were for one company, ALFURQAN VENTURES, and all were signed on same day, November 24, 2016. Even the order to supply rice on the same brand was had two separate LPOs, with each specifying the exact kilogram of the rice.
For Joy FM, hiding being ‘Corruption Watch’, to then accuse Kofi Osei-Ameyaw of abusing the process of awarding contracts to his relations and deciding to split the items into separate lots, just so he can get some supposed “11 contracts” signed for his sister-in-law is quite disingenuous because the practice of separating LPOs is not peculiar to Rams Kitchen and has been the style of the NLA.
It has also emerged that contrary to Joy FM reports that Kofi Osei-Ameyaw, per his position as Chairman of the Entity and Tender Committee could have shown some bias for Rams Kitchen during the tender and procurement processes, this could not have happened because that contract was not handled by the Entity and Tender Committee.
It was purely handled by the Entity Head who formed an evaluation panel consisted by the following: head of Human Resource and Administration, Senior Auditor, Logistics and Inventory Manager and the Senior Procurement Officer.
Kofi Osei-Ameyaw was not a member of the panel and the evaluation was not done by the Tender Committee of which he is a member.
Even if the LPOs were not separated but bulked together, the total contract sum would have been GHC583,000 which is below the GHC800,000 limit set for the Tender Committee which Kofi Osei-Ameyaw is chairman of.
Per the Public Procurement (Amended) Act 2016, Act 941 which applies to the NLA, it is only when the contract sum is above GHC800,000 that it would be referred to the Central Tender Review Committee.
Therefore, whether or not the LPOs were split, the NLA could have signed the total amount of GHC583,000.
Checks from the Register General Department proved that Rams Kitchen was actually registered in the year 2013. In the year 2015, Rams registered with the NLA to do business with the company as a supplier.
Two years later, in 2017, Kofi Osei-Ameyaw was appointed to head the NLA and there was a contract to be given to a supplier, through competitive bidding, to supply various items to be shared for staff as Christmas package.
Three companies submitted their bids and after the requisite value for money auditing was done, it was concluded that Rams Kitchen was the best bidder. The company quoted GHC583,000 for both supply and delivery of the goods while the two other companies quoted GHC613,748 and GHC619,970 respectively.
The evaluation committee selected Rams Kitchen and wrote a recommendation the NLA management asking that the Authority should give the contract to the lowest bidder and this was done.
It was under this circumstance that Joy FM went ahead with a story that Kofi Osei-Ameyaw had signed 11 separate contracts for Rams Kitchen in one day and that he was involved in a conflict of interest situation.
It is public knowledge that Kofi Osei-Ameyaw’s continuous stay at the NLA has become a source of great discomfort to persons who were doing some business for the Authority and were hitherto making more money into their private pockets than what the NLA was making for the state.
An attempt by Kofi Osei-Ameyaw to change the situation and ensure that all revenue leakages are blocked and the NLA makes more money for the state has earned him LOTS of enemies who are bent of ruining his reputation just to get him out.
