Ministry of Finance overpays Taysec C25 million

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) last year overpaid Taysec Construction Limited, a private company where the Finance Minister?s son coincidentally works as project officer by a whopping margin of ?25 million, Audit report has revealed. Again, Comptran Ltd., another construction company was overpaid by the MOF by ?6,997,908.

According to documents in possession of The Ghanaian Chronicle, the Acting Auditor General, Edward Dua Agyeman, in a letter dated 21 September 2001 drew the Finance Minister?s attention to the overpayment and requested that the payment should be stopped. The MOF insists that they were not aware of the overpayment until the audit report.

Taysec, the beneficiary also kept mute over the overpayment until the Finance Ministry wrote to them. MOF has not retrieved the money because they say the government still owes the company. ?Taysec did not come to us; we went to them after the audit and they agreed that there had been overpayment. We did not retrieve it because government still owes them,? the ministry?s officials have said.

Even though insiders says something is amiss, the Special Assistant to the Finance Minister, Dr Osei Akoto, told the Chronicle on Wednesday that the overpayment was due to a communication lapse.

Asked about how a lapse resulted in the overpayment, Dr Akoto said that before they took office in the year 2000, the former minister, Mr Kwame Peprah, had deposited a Letter of Credit at the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) for the payment of monies owed Taysec.

According to him, the payments were to be made in three trances of 3 pounds sterling each, adding that the Letter of Credit to GCB was not copied to the Ministry of Roads. He continued that the ministry received a letter from GCB last year stating that they were now ready to pay the money to Taysec Construction. The Finance Minister said in order to live up to the former government?s arrangement (which is a government commitment) the ministry authorized GCB to pay Taysec.

Shortly after that, Dr Akoto said, the Roads and Transport Ministry submitted certificates of payment in respect of Taysec Construction, which was also authorised.

But some insiders say they disagree with the finance ministry?s explanation because it is not possible that MOF authorises any payment request that is made upon them. ?The initial payment should have reflected on their books,? an insider complained. They also maintained that the payment looks suspicious and deliberate.

Their arguments are that Taysec had been threatening to withdraw from this country because the government owed them and the overpayment and that, ?somebody was paying them to stay because of his son.? They insist that the move is a deliberate preferential treatment to Taysec because the government similarly owes several other construction companies. The motivation for such a preferential treatment they said is the Finance Minister, Yaw Osafo Maafo?s son.

Even though Dr Akoto admits that Taysec construction was threatening to withdraw because government owed them so much, he disagreed with the position that it was due to the Minister?s son?s connection with Taysec that resulted in the overpayment. He said, ?this was not handled by the Minister; it was handled by myself and the director of budget. The Minister doesn?t sign cheques.?

Dr Akoto in a civil and decent language said even though the complainants are entitled to their opinions, the reason for the overpayment is ?primarily due to a communication lapse.? Continuing, he said that because of the duplication of payments, they have instructed GCB to discontinue the payment of the remaining two trances.

He re-emphasised that the Finance Ministry decided to go ahead with the arrangement with GCB because they didn?t want things to look as if because it was started by the previous government they stopped it. ?We received the GCB letter first. We felt we should live to the previous government?s arrangement because it is a government commitment,? he added.

Asked about what steps the ministry is putting in place to ensure that such overpayments do not occur in future, Dr Akoto said they are going to make sure that there is a better coordination within the various departments in the Ministry with regards to future payments. ?We are trying to ensure that a central office knows about all payments. Now, it is like different offices can make payments without any coordination,? he said.