Mahama’s brother using state assets for personal gains – MP

The Minority Minority spokesperson on Legal and Constitutional Affairs in Parliament, Joe Osei Owusu has accused the President of giving his brother, Ibrahim Mahama undue advantage after alleging he uses state assets to execute private contracts.

This followed reports that Ibrahim Mahama’s mining firm Engineers and Planners (E&P) used heavy duty equipment belonging to state to dredge the Odaw river.

Citi News further checks revealed E&P rather helped the state by using its experienced personnel to operate the equipment, while government fuelled them.

Joe Osei Owusu would however not buy that: “They are being used for the execution of private contracts for private gains by the President’s brother and that is the worst part of it. The President is misgoverning the country by allowing his family to use state assets for private purposes.

The earth moving equipment were bought in after Parliament approved a 2014 loan agreement to help provide funding for a new drive to retool the various local assemblies. But in two separate letters, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development directed the release of the equipment to E&P.

The letters were signed by a Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Nii Lantey Vanderpuije.

The Deputy Minister indicated that he was writing based on directives he had received from the Office of the President.

According to Joe Osei Owusu, this amounts to conflict of interest because the equipment have been found at the private construction site of E&P at Akyem Tafo where the company is executing a contract. He disclosed on the Point Blank segment on Eyewitness News that when the equipment arrived in the country, they were registered in the name of German Equipment Company.

“What is suspicious is that they are branded with the name of Engineers and Planers,” he claimed. Joe Osei Owusu indicated that this situation raises a bigger issue “as to what value Ghana is going to get from the loan that it is going to pay.”

Credit: citifmonline.com