Railnet could not raise money to pay bid-bond - Ministry

Accra, March 8, GNA - Ms Ama Jantuah Banful of the Attorney - General's Department on Tuesday said Railnet, a London-based Ghanaian railway-engineering firm, did not qualify to bid to run the country's railways because it failed to post 250,000-dollar bid-bond.
Mr Bruce Anim-Annor, Chairman of Railnet, had alleged that the Ministry of Railways, Ports and Harbours had rejected his bid in spite of the fact it offered the highest bid of 32 million dollars to run the railways on concessionary basis.
Ms Banful, who was speaking at a press briefing to respond to Mr Anim-Annor's allegation, said Railnet did not qualify for the bidding process because it was unable to post the bid-bond which was to serve as a guarantee.
She said Mr Anim-Annor told them that his bankers had refused to guarantee the bid-bond.
"We gave him ample time to sort things out but he could not. As a result Railnet was disqualified.
Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi, Sector Minister, explained that the Ministry started the bidding process with 15 bidders but ended up with only three - Spoornet, a South African Company, United Rails in the UK and Railnet.
The Minister said Railnet did not qualify because it did not meet the full requirements of the Divestiture Implementation Committee.
"At the moment we have only two companies to deal with out of which one has met the full requirements of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) and we look forward to continue the bidding process with it."
The Minister said any figure that was stated in the document covering the bidding was an annual fee to be paid to the Ministry and it was not a selling price for the railways.
He said by March 15, when all negotiations must have been done, DIC would present a full report on the process.