Former Standards Authority Director cited in $1.2m kickback scandal

former Executive Director of the Ghana Standards Authority, Dr. George Crentsil

Joy News has intercepted an investigative report which alleges that former Executive Director of the Ghana Standards Authority Dr George Crentsil received a $1.2million kickback from a contractor.

Lemet Construction Company is said to have worked on a new block of the Standards Authority Training School at a cost in excess of GHC15 million.

The contractor did not state why he gave out the money but the report indicates Dr. Crentsil admitted receiving the cash.

According to the report submitted by the board of directors of the Ghana Standards Authority to the then Trade Minister Dr Ekwow Spio Gabrah, Dr George Crentsil took $1 million from the contractor working on the GSA training school on one occasion.

On another occasion, he took $200,000.

A part of the report reads, “The Executive Director admitted taking money from the contractor but refused to state how much, stating it was a sensitive matter.”

On July 2012, the Ghana Standards Authority awarded the GHc15.2 million contract to Lemet Construction Company to build a new training school and hostel facility for the Ghana Standards Authority in Accra.

Sources at the Authority say the contractor, Johnson Teye, failed to meet the deadline for completion of the project due to lack of funds. The board raised questions about the delay.

Trade Minister at the time Dr Spio Gabrah ordered an investigation into the contract based on an anonymous letter from a management member of the Authority.

Dr Gabrah would not go on record but tells Joy News “After I received the first anonymous letter, I called the executive director of Ghana Standards Board and quizzed him on the complaints. But, when I received the second letter, I directed the board to investigate the matter. I, however, wasn’t able to take action because the report was submitted when I was leaving office.”

The Board Chairman of the Authority Amadu Sorogho also would not go on record but agreed to be quoted.

“A committee was set up under at the instance of an authority. We finished our work, as the chairman, we read it; we confronted people that we needed to confront and we sent it with a covering letter to the appropriate authority with the recommendations,” he said.

When Joy News contacted the former Executive Director of Standards Authority, he declined to comment.

The report revealed that the contractor provided materials and personnel to complete a three-bedroom storey building for Dr. Crentsil at East Legon, a suburb of Accra.

The former Executive Director, however, denied the claim.

He also denied he owns a hospital at East Legon as revealed in the investigations



Source.ghanaweb