Major Quashigah (rtd), the Minister of Health under the erstwhile New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, has come under the radar of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as he is probed over GH¢1,294,000 unexecuted but paid projects under his watch and approval.

Not only that, the same person is said to have won the competitive contracts under different names.

The one-time ranger in the Ghana Army was arrested, cautioned and is currently on bail as further investigations continue into the contract.

Documents sighted by DAILY GUIDE show that while serving as Health Minister, Major Quashigah authorized the undertaking of preventive maintenance of training institutions under the Ministry of Health to the tune of over GH¢1.29 million.

The decision to award the contract originated from a memo from the Director of Administration at the Ministry of Health dated 9 July, 2008 in the form of a proposal.

The proposal, addressed to the then Minister of Health, sought to have a planned periodic maintenance of all the fifty-two training institutions under the ministry.

This maintenance approach was ostensibly presented as making more economic sense than repairs at the facilities when disrepair sets in. Under such situations, government would expend huge costs according to the memo.

It was therefore proposed in the memo that private enterprises be engaged to undertake the said routine maintenance to forestall the expensive route based on need.

The private enterprises were by the arrangement scheduled to undertake the routine preventive maintenance annually for five years.

The terms of engagement included the replacement and maintenance of hardware like doors, windows, furniture, fittings, locks, offices and bungalows and structures in schools.

With the then Minister, Courage Quashigah, approving the proposal, the Chief Director ordered the Deputy Director of Administration, Mr. Azumah to commence action.

The first step was the award of contracts to cover each of the training schools under the Ministry of Health countrywide at various costs, and ranging between GH¢20,000 and GH¢40,000 per annum with the total contract sum for 2008 standing at GH¢1,294,000.

DAILY GUIDE learnt that an advanced mobilization of 50% to the tune of GH¢646,000 was allegedly paid to the contractor.

Investigations to ascertain the status of the contracts have showed that no work was done by the contractor in most of the training institutions, indicating that the award of the contract was fraudulent.

Another revelation in the investigation is that the five companies which won the contract were under the control of the same person.

The contractor is said to have provided competitive bids by the use of non-existent companies’ invoices which were generated by him.

Investigators have also found out that the deal went through because the ministry’s directorate failed to look into the issue with due diligence.

Source: Daily Guide

Tags: ag, major quashigah, serious fraud, sfo