Minister stops ?3 billion printing contract

The Evening News says the Minister of Finance, Mr. Yaw Osafo Maafo, has moved swiftly to stop the award of contract for the printing of Tax Invoice and Hotel/Restaurant receipt books as requested by the Controller and accountant-General's Department.

The contract worth close to ?3 billion was for the printing of 30,000 Tax Invoices and 20,000 Hotel/Restaurant receipt books.

Information available to the paper reveal that FONSTAT Limited which won the bid out of three other printing houses - IKAM, Buckpres and Safeway - has already been advanced ?1 billion.

The Minister's action followed the detection of some discrepancies in the price quotations as presented by the Tender Board.

The paper’s investigations show that, one other company, Checkpoint Ghana, which had since 1998, been printing the invoices at ?15,000 per booklet approached the Controller and Accountant-General's Department for an up review of the unit price to ?26,000 in view of the rising cost of materials.

However, in line with the government's avowed commitment to the principles of transparency, the Minister was said to have ordered that the contract should go to tender.

During the evaluation, FONSTAT, which quoted the lowest bid per unit was awarded the contract. The company, quoted ?62,000 per unit for the 30,000 Tax Invoice booklets and ?20,000 each for the 55,000 Hotel/Restaurant receipt books.

Not quite long, however, the Accountant-General's department realized that, there was an acute shortage of the booklets in the system and since FONSTAT was yet to get mobilized for the job, they decided to fall on the original printing house, Checkpoint, for assistance.

Checkpoint, whose original offer of ?26,000 per unit was rejected, was asked to print 5,000 booklets at ?30,000 per booklet.

When the Minister got wind of this development, he got furious, wondering how an offer of ?26,000 could be rejected in favour of ?30,000 per unit.

He subsequently, directed the Tender Board to suspend the contract.