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General News of Tuesday, 22 May 2018

Source: starrfmonline.com

Kelni GVG deal: More NCA Board members to resign – IMANI reveals

IMANI President Franklin Cudjoe has disclosed that more board members of the National Communications Authority are willing to walk out of the job following the controversy surrounding the Kelni GVG contract with Communications ministry.

The claim comes on the back of reports of the resignation of a board member of the NCA Susan-Barbera Adjorkor Boye Kumapley, over unknown reasons.

Government has signed an $89 million contract with Kelni GVG to deal with revenue losses and simbox fraud involving telcos.

IMANI has maintained the contract is fraught with fraud and must be cancelled.

They argue the company does not have the track record to undertake the job that has been given it.

“Some board members of the NCA are willing to resign if the deal goes through. There is one board member who has resigned. We don’t know who owns GVG. Meanwhile the ministers are sitting and talking at length. How on earth under Akufo-Addo government can a minister work with a company that doesn’t have a track record?

“GVG keeps changing their websites. Sometime back when we took a screenshot of their website, we noticed they deal in cement and over a period everything changed on the website. MTN alone in 2016 paid about Ghs1.1bn in taxes and fees. In 2017, MTN alone paid about Ghs1.2bn in taxes and fees and together they pay more,” Mr. Cudjoe told Morning Starr host Francis Abban.

Meanwhile, Communications minister Ursula Owusu Ekuful who has defended the contract accuses the IMANI boss of being a hired assassin.

“You don’t know what You are talking about and if you had enquired before going off half cocked, you’d have been educated. Every step taken was with the full knowledge and collaboration of the finance minister and the evidence is there. Public procurement rules were followed to the letter. The evidence is there.

“The same process is being undertaken in Rwanda currently with the same telcos here, and the one network policy being undertaken by the Smart Africa Initiative member states is facilitated by this same technical partner you are busily vilifying ignorantly here. Imani has not spoken to the MTN CEO on this Kelni GVG transaction yet Franklin Cudjoe quotes him on air as being opposed to this transaction. Who are you working for?? Everything digital falls under the purview of the Ministry of Communications including digital financial services,” she wrote in response to the claims by IMANI.