We shall buy more vehicles- Tarzan

The Chief Executive of the Volta River Authority (VRA), Dr. Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby has argued that the purchase of automobiles by his organisation was not by any measure a "profligate act" as suggested by sections of the Ghanaian media. Dr. Wereko-Brobby was addressing the press at a briefing at the conference room of VRA Headquarters in Accra yesterday.

The Chief Executive said the vehicles were bought by the VRA in line with the authority's long term 3-phase vehicle replacement strategic vision to revamp its logistical base.

"As at September, 2001 the vehicle situation was very critical and urgent action was needed for a substantial injection of new vehicles into the fleet in order to avoid the crippling of our operations," he said.

The vehicles, he said, are crucial to ensuring that the VRA delivered efficient and reliable services to its customers who clamour incessantly for value for their money. The Chief Executive said, "To maintain 4,000km of lines and about 12,000 transmission towers, our maintenance staff are required to visit each tower two times every year, visit each kilometre of transmission line each year from both ground patrols and aerial patrols."

On the 70 Nissan Terranos and 29 Volvo S40s which were at the centre of the controversial press reports Dr. Brobby said their purchase was informed by "the competitiveness of price and the make/type of vehicle that is functionally suitable and capable of meeting the Authority's operational demands/conditions." Another consideration VRA took into account was the relatively less expensive initial operational cost of the vehicles after competitive tendering in November 2001 involving seventeen companies.

The Volvos and Terranos were the most generously priced of all the vehicles offered which included brands such as Toyota Corona, Daewoo Musso, VW Passat and Nissan Primera among others.

"The negotiated price for the Volvo S40 was $20,000 while the Terranos went for $18,862 which prices were relatively cheap given the quality of the vehicles in question." He said the reports which suggested that the VRA had purchased "luxury cars" were wholly unfounded and not premised on the facts of the matter. He advised the media to make the effort to report facts and not their own "precast" viewpoints.

It will be recalled that media reports in the early part of last week about VRA purchasing "luxury vehicles" at a time when it was asking the nation to pay higher tariffs for its services raised heated public debate on the perceived impropriety of that corporate decision.

In what has now become the new open door corporate culture of state-owned institutions, the VRA boss said, "An unfortunate impression has been created that the VRA is purchasing Volvo S40 vehicles, which has been termed as a luxury car, and the 70 Nissan Terranos for its Management Staff, in spite of the fact that these Management Staff have already been provided with vehicles which are said to be only two years old."

"In fact we shall buy more vehicles," Dr Charles Wireko-Brobbey added.