FINDINGS
Minister
Side-steps Rules in ¢3 Billion Contract
There
is murmuring in the Forestry Sector over the manner Prof.
Kasim Kasanga, Minister of Lands and Forestry awarded a
¢3 billion (about USD 350,000 at current exchange rate of
$1=¢8600) contract for the supply of 200,000 grafted mango
seedlings.
Conventional practice that ensures transparency, especially,
given the amount of money involved dictated that the Minister
should have put the contract on open tender and not hand
over the contract to one company, Agrovets Limited. Again,
the Minister awarded the contract when the Fund Management
Board, the body set up under the Forest Plantation Development
Fund, had not established the criteria and modalities for
disbursement of the Fund from which the Minister drew the
¢3 billion. But Prof. Kasanga has defended his action.
In an interview on Tuesday this week, he said government
was under pressure from farmers to demonstrate that the
National Forest Plantation Development Programme, a Presidential
Special Initiative under which the mango seedlings were
procured, had taken off in the entire country. It could
therefore not be frustrated by procurement procedures.'(Besides),
"when prices are comparable with local seedlings what's
the need for wasting money to advertise when the company
that was awarded the contract even subsidized it for us?",
he asked rhetorically.
This reporter found from independent sources, though,
that the price quoted by Agrovets compared to what pertained
on the local market. The contract was officially awarded
within 72 hours but the distribution and planting of the
mango seedlings has not been handled with the same sense
of urgency the Minister had indicated as the reason for
not opening the contract up.. The seedlings are still held
up in the Upper East Region where Agrovets had delivered
them after purchasing them from Burkina Faso.
Records of correspondence between the Minister and Agrovets
Limited showed that on September 9th, 2002, Dr. H. A. Wemah,
the Managing Director of Agrovets, wrote a letter to the
Minister recalling the ’several discussions (Prof.
K. Kasanga / Dr. Wemah) regarding the supply and planting
of improved mango and other seedlings. We are in a position
to supply two hundred thousand (200,000) grafted mango seedlings
(Burkina Faso type) between September and October...."We
offer these highly grafted mango seedlings at ¢15,000 instead
of the ¢18,000 that they are currently being sold for in
view of the quantity involved", Dr. Wemah said. Three
days after, on September 12, Prof. Kasanga responded, accepting
the offer.
"I wish to confirm that this Ministry is ready to purchase
two hundred thousand (200,000 grafted mangoes (Burkina Faso
type) between September and October, 2002 for distribution
to identifiable groups in support of the Governments afforestation
programme. We also accept your price of ¢15,000 (Fifteen
Thousand cedis) per seedling", the Minister wrote.
During the interview, which
was also attended by Dr. Wemah in the Minister's office,
Prof. Kasanga repeatedly dismissed suggestions that by handing
down the contract to one preferred company, he might have
had a personal interest. He said although Agrovets got the
contract, everything was done above board and that he formed
a three-man Committee that included himself and two others
in the award of the contract. Asked how he got to know about
the Ministry's need for the supply of the mangoes, Dr. Wemah
said he had been dealing with the Ministry regularly and
therefore learnt about it. "Anyone in the industry
should know about it so it was not as if I have benefited
from any insider trading." The Forest Plantation Development
Fund was established by an Act of Parliament in 2000 and
was amended this year. The fund comprises a levy of between
10%-30% from 'Air-Dried' timber exports which currently
has ¢70 billion in its accounts.
Under the legislation setting up the Fund, a Fund Management
Board (which has now been established), is to determine
the criteria and modalities to administer the Fund. It is
from this Fund that the Ministry of Lands and Forestry has
started disbursing even though the Board has not completed
the criteria and modalities for its expenditure.
Prof. Kasanga has so far applied to Mr. Yaw Osafo-Maafo,
Minister of Finance to be allowed to withdraw ¢17 billion
from the Fund to enable his Ministry and the Forestry Commission
meet some commitments in respect of government's Afforestation
Programme. The request has been granted. When asked why
he was spending money from the Fund when the Fund Board
of which he is not a Member, had not completed working on
the criteria and modalities for disbursement, Prof. Kasanga
said the Board would take sometime to develop the criteria
and modalities and the Ministry could not wait because there
are urgent things to be done.
"There were farmers whom we owed several millions of
cedis and these debts have been outstanding for sometime.
They were getting frustrated so we had to pay them from
the Fund"', Prof. Kasanga said.
Apart from the ¢3 billion that has been spent to procure
the mango seedlings, other fairly substantial expenditures
had been incurred from the Fund.
The Minister gave the following expenditure breakdown incurred
so far from the Fund when he fielded questions from Members
of Parliament recently. ¢6.25 billion to local communities
and farmer groups contracted to produce 25 million seedlings;
¢8.75 billion to over 72,000 people (including 25,000 farmers)
who were engaged to cultivate 19,000 hectares of forest
plantations within degraded forest reserves throughout the
country; ¢600 million for the supply of 5,000 pairs of Wellington
boots, 5,000 cutlasses and a number of nursery equipment
including wheelbarrows given to some farmers and local communities
throughout the country. A further ¢5 billion and ¢1 billion
has been earmarked for fire prevention and plantation maintenance
during the dry season and for the purchase of seedlings
respectively, Prof. Kasanga told the House. The Minister
plans to spend more money from the Fund.
By William Nyarko, GCPI
*This story has since been published in the November 11,
2002 edition of the National Concord Newspaper
