Ablakwa blows alarm on US$48m contract awarded by Ursula without PPA approval

In a July 6, 2023 post on his social media handles, the MP provided correspondence between himself and the Public Procurement Authority (PPA) to back his claims.

“In my latest exposé, I reveal how Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful shockingly awarded a US$48million contract without PPA approval,” portions of his caption for the post read.

“The contract was dubiously awarded to the same Nigerian cabal which has hijacked the Communications & Digitalization sector,” he added.

Ablakwa’s request dated 8th June was titled “REQUEST FOR INFORMATION,” and read in part: “Respectfully, can you confirm if the Public Procurement Authority has granted procurement approval as required per the Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as amended with (Act 914) to Ascend Digital Solutions under a US$48 million Rural Telephony Project contract purportedly for Engineering, Design, Build, Rollout and Managed Services which is being executed by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization since the year 2020.”

The PPA in its response dated 30th June, 2023 and signed by Deputy Chief Executive Kwame Prempeh read: “We wish to inform you that our records do not reflect any information of the above-mentioned project.”

Read Ablakwa’s full post below:

As the Akufo-Addo government continues to persecute their political opponents, they are the ones committing real egregious crimes against the Ghanaian people.

In my latest exposé, I reveal how Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful shockingly awarded a US$48million contract without PPA approval.

The PPA confirms this blatant violation in their response to my RTI request as attached.

The contract was dubiously awarded to the same Nigerian cabal which has hijacked the Communications & Digitalization sector.

EC boss, Charlotte Osei was removed for procurement breaches; others are languishing in jail for far lesser procurement infractions.