Osaafo-Maafo's claim incorrect

...Budget statement contradicts fact on ground

CONTRARY TO the claims made in the 2003 budget statement by the Minister of Finance, Hon. Yaw Osaafo-Maafo, that the Ghana Police Service (GPS) has been supplied with 100 rehabilitated Land Rovers, Chronicle investigations have revealed that the spare parts to rehabilitate the vehicles are still in the bosom of Land Rovers International (LRI) in far-away United Kingdom (UK).

In his address the Mr. Osafo-Maafo made a statement that; ?the year 2002 has witnessed drastic reduction in the crime rate, and that has been achieved through the police and military. This achievement was enhanced by the acquisition of 413 vehicles of various types and rehabilitation of 100 Land Rovers?.

The last time Chronicle checked from the Police Service, that is last week, 40 of the said cars were sitting on the grounds of the Police headquarters while the rest were said to be parked at the workshop of Mechanical Lloyd Company Limited (MLCL), the company that was tasked by Land Rovers International to do the servicing as the local agents of the company.

Further probing by the Chronicle has revealed that, the parts of even the first 20 have still not been supplied even though Ghana Police has placed a second order for supply.

LRI made a contract with the government of Ghana, through the Ministry of Interior, to supply 100 units of Land Rover Defender vehicles for the GPS. The contract included the supply of spare parts.

The spare parts were to be used to repair some of the Service?s broken-down vehicles, which were supplied by the same company. The repair process would also offer on the job training to some technicians from the police workshops.

To enable Mechanical Lloyd repair as many vehicles as possible, it was necessary to inspect each vehicle so that only the parts needed would be ordered, rather than change parts just for the sake of it.

Mechanical Lloyd and the GPS, therefore, set up a process where 20 vehicles at a time would be delivered to the importing company for assessment and the relevant parts would then ordered and shipped to the Police Service, who would clear the parts and deliver them to Mechanical Lloyd for the repairs to be carried out.

On May 6 and 20, 2002 the GPS delivered the first 20 Land Rovers to MLCL for assessment and then complete the list of parts for the first 20 vehicles which would be sent to LRI by e-mail.

On August 20,2002 LRI informed the MLCL that they (LRI) could not provide pro-forma invoice nor ship according to the agreement that parts should be shipped and boxed separately for each vehicle.

MLCL prompted LRI that the pro-forma was being unduly delayed and so LRI sent a pro-forma on August 28, but there were errors and omissions on the pro-forma, so MLCL decided to merge and correct the mistakes, after having sent an earlier incomplete fax of 19 out of 30 pages MLCL received a faxed invoice which still contained errors.

On October 30,2002 MLCL phoned and sent e-mail to the senior management at LRI for assistance to progress the order, part of the mail read, ?We spoke this morning, we are getting increasingly embarrassed about the long delay in sorting out the parts for the rehabilitation of the police vehicles. We had difficulty meeting with the police chiefs today! We met to review progress of the police project.?

After MLCL had confirmed the Land Rover pro-forma was acceptable, on 26 November 2002, it appeared in the Financial Times newspaper in Britain, that ?Land Rover is having trouble supplying spare parts to dealers after switching distribution to Caterpillar Logistics, the US-owned company at the centre of a parts crisis at MG Rover, the problems at Land Rover, part of Ford, have left broken ?down vehicles in garages waiting for parts and led to formal complaints by dealer associations, ?parts supply has been problematic for sometime?, said Peter Johnson, chief executive of Inchape, a dealer group.

Mechanical Lloyd again sent a mail to LRI on January 9, this year, which read, ? We are aware that you have problems, however there seems to be lack of urgency with this order, the length of time it?s taking is bordering on being preposterous. The reasons and promises we are giving to the Ghana Police Service has worn very thin. I do not know whether you are aware of the fact that the police vehicles were sent to us as far back as May 2002.?

LRI confirmed that the parts are now 100% available and they would complete the pickings and packing of the parts by February 22, this year.

In his address the Mr. Osafo-Maafo made a statement that; ?The year 2002 has witnessed drastic reduction in the crime rate, and that has been achieved through the police and military. This achievement was enhanced by the acquisition of 413 vehicles of various types and rehabilitation of 100 Land Rovers?.

Chronicle authentically reports that, the statement made by the minister was untrue since as at now 40 of the supposed 100 rehabilitated vehicles are parked at the police workshop in Accra and the rest are parked at the workshop of the MLCL at Adenta, a suburb of Accra.

According to sources officials at GPS, the Minister of Interior, last year, presented some Land Rovers to GPS and during the handing over of the keys to the Inspector General of Police the minister promised that the ministry would supply another 100 rehabilitated Land Rovers since it was part of the contract but since then the police has not received any such cars.

The officials told this paper that, the delay in the rehabilitation of the vehicles by LRI has upset the IGP since he needs the vehicles urgently to boost the police?s drive to combat crime particularly armed robbery.

When the financial spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance, Nana Owusu Ntow, was contacted, he said, ?Since the police are saying they have not received any such vehicles then I have nothing to defend.?