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Govt on track to retrieve excess cash from Smarttys - Mahama

The Chief of Staff, Julius Debrah on December 18, 2015, ordered the Attorney General and Minister for Justice to recover GH¢1.9 million from Smartty’s Management Limited for the rebranding of  116 buses.

 

President John Mahama has assured Ghanaians that government is on track to retrieve excess money from Smartyys Productions over the GHC 3.6 million spent on re-branding 116 buses.

Concerns have later been raised as to how Government will be swift in retrieving the said amount.

But speaking to the media at the Flagstaff House on Tuesday, President Mahama noted that "On Friday, the lawyers of the company met with the Attorney General to agree on a payment plan to refund what has been discussed as the excess. So the Attorney General will go ahead and take that."

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Background

It emerged in December 16, 2015 that a pro-forma invoice dated 17th July 2015, and signed by the Accounts Officer of Smarttys Management and Productions and copied to the Ministry of Transport, put the total cost of branding for each bus at Ghc30,420.00.

The minority leader drew the speaker's attention  to an item in the accounts of expenditures made from the petroleum revenues fund  by the Ministry of Transport in 2015 which had to do with the amounts spent on branding 116 Metro Mass Transit buses.

Transport Minister, Dzifa Attivor subsequently resigned following the revelation that her Ministry had spent GHC 3.6 million on re-branding 116 buses.

Referring to the 2015 Annual Report on the Petroleum Revenues Fund, the Ministry of Transport spent GHC31,000 on branding the images of eight former presidents on each Metro Mass Transit bus.

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Smartyys Productions  is owned by popular actress Selassie Ibrahim who is also the wife of Ibrahim Adam, a former minister of Agriculture under the Rawlings administration.

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