VRA Rejects Christie's Ambulance

The controversial Christie's Sewing Industry (CSI), which was awarded the contract for the supply of a hospital ambulance to the Volta River Authority (VRA), finally delivered the ambulance about a month ago but without some vital parts.

This compelled the VRA to reject the ambulance, saying that until those parts were included, it would not be accepted.

According to a source close to The Chronicle, the missing parts are an oxygen resuscitator, a flow meter and its valve.

The Chronicle gathered that they were intentionally not included in the shipment of the whole ambulance through the Tema Harbour, because CSI feared they might be stolen. The company therefore informed VRA that the parts would be delivered by air.

However Customs, Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) and Tema Harbour officials strongly protested against the reason, because there had not been any record of ambulance parts theft at the port before.

The Chronicle learnt yesterday that officials of the Health Department of the VRA and the VRA hospital were on their way to the Materials Management Department of the authority, where the ambulance is being kept, to inspect whether the missing parts had been fitted before taking delivery.

CSI was awarded the contract to supply the ambulance, although it had no record of ever supplying or repairing hospital ambulances.

The company made several requests to the VRA for extension of the delivery schedule after failing to meet the deadline. In one instance, it said, "due to the installation of some specialized equipment on the vehicle by Daimler-Benz, the manufacturer in Germany, we would not be able to deliver the ambulance as planned."

According to the officials of VRA, if the ambulance did not meet the specifications prescribed in the contract, they would be forced to cancel the contract and seek legal action against CSI.

In a related development, The Chronicle has learnt from its sources at VRA that a committee has been set up by the Interim Management to review the relevance of the Strategic Reserve Plant (SRP) (because it is too expensive) and consider if it could be disposed of or replaced with a less expensive one.