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The banter of allegations and corresponding responses between IMANI Ghana and the National Communication Authority over the Afriwave contract does not seem to be dying down anytime soon.
And the Press Conference held by NCA on Wednesdy , February 10, appears to have done little to put the issue to rest.
The National Communications Authority has found it necessary to release another press statement, Monday morning, to further respond to the allegations of fraud leveled against it by IMANI in connection with the award of an Interconnect Clearing House license to Afriwave Telecom Ghana Limited.
In the latest press release, NCA said, it has publish the results of the Independent Application Evaluation Panel on the Interconnect Clearinghouse Services License and other relevant documents.
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This, according to the NCA is to ensure transparency in its dealings in relation to the award of the contract to Afriwave.
The NCA emphasises that the report uploaded on its website is the final report bearing the signatures of all members of the panel that was presented to the Board of the NCA on the 29th January 2015.
They are the only true and accurate reflection of the exact findings and recommendations of the AEP, they say.
IMANI Ghana's Franklin Cudjoe's claims of a leaked document from the Application Evaluation Panel was categorically denied in NCA's release, with the NCA going as far as daring Mr. Cudjoe to publish the so- called leaked document in his possession as well as the name of the panel member who supposedly leaked it.
The Authority then found it necessary to respond to some of the claims made by IMANI Ghana in relation to the award of the contract.
Below is a summary of the press statement released by the NCA, and Copied toPulse Business.
Response: This process bean with extensive public consultations as far back as November, 2014. This involved meetings and fora held with with industry players, Telcos, Parliament, Civil Society Organizations and other stakeholders. The process involved the issuance of a licence to render a specific set of services and the NCA based on its over two decades of experience in regulatiin g the sector is confident that the time allotted for the process was adequate to allow for the necessary scrutiny as expertly done by the AEP.
This claim is not only false, it is also fraudulent. The Evaluation panel in fact stated at page 12 of its report in section 25.1 under Stage One: Pre- qualification( Administrative) that
" The AEP observed the the administrative pre- qualification of applicants required in stage one of the process had not been done by commencement of work. The AEP decided that the two stages be combined into one process for the purpose of the evaluation."
NCA categorically rejects this claim. It is false and constitutes yet another fraudulent attempt by IMANI to alter public documents for reasons best known to them. As noted above the Evaluation Panel has authenticated the results contained in the report as representing the true outcome of their work.
As a further step to show the falsehood inherent in this particular claim by Imani, we have published the excel spread sheets on individual scores of individual evaluators were recorded.
We also wish to reiterate that the mention of transpositional errors in our earlier encounter with the media was in respect of errors in the column of Subah Infosolutons Limited which were detected and corrected by the AEP prior to submission of the final report to the NCA Board. Evidence of this correction is provided in the form of email correspondence among member of the panel during the press conference held on Wednesday, 10, February 2016.
We urge the media and the general public to at all times contact the Authority for clarifications required on any matter relating to its functons.