Tricycles abandoned at SADA Yard in Tamale
Checks by DAILY GUIDE at the office of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) in the Northern Region have revealed that over 2,100 unassembled tricycles have been left in the sun and harsh weather for over three years.
DAILY GUIDE has gathered that about 5,000 units of tricycles and 1,000 units of motorbikes were brought to Tamale from China, out of which about 2,900 were assembled, leaving 2,100 unassembled.
The 2,900 which were assembled were given out to interested people on hire purchase for business purposes.
Information available to DAILY GUIDE indicates that majority of the tricycles were given to supporters of the NDC and some parliamentary candidates to campaign in 2016 but till date none has paid for the tricycles.
It is alleged that SADA raised a ‘Letter of Credit’ to facilitate a loan worth $9 million to import tricycles from China.
A five-member committee was sanctioned by the Minister in charge of Special Development Initiative, Madam Mavis Hawa Koomson. They went through clearing documents from customs such as the importer declaration forms (IDF), the final classification and valuation report (FCVR) and the Ghana Ports and Harbour Authority (GHAPOHA) waybills to ascertain the total number of items imported from china.
The exercise revealed that a total number of 5,000 tricycles, 800 gacela mapouka motorcycles and 480 gacela crash helmets were imported from china.
However, the committee could not verify from the import documents, 200 gacela kombian motorcycles and helmets imported. It is possible they all came together with consignments but the committee did not cite the source of the stock.
Committee Recommendation
A committee that was mandated to look into the Unik Savannah Company led by Hawa Komson recommended that Unik Savannah requires serious investigations by competent state institutions, especially with issues relating to fraud and mismanagement of state resources.
Again, the committee recommended that SADA should continue to provide EOCO with all necessary information to continue its investigations into the operations of Unik Savannah.
It was recommended that the employment contract of all staff of Unik Savannah should be terminated.
The committee’s report revealed, “The committee realized that Unik Savannah was created with good intentions and purpose to facilitate poverty reduction through job creation and improve agriculture and rural transport systems. However, poor management of the company coupled with deliberate attempts by some of the directors of the company to defraud SADA and others resulted in the mess that has been created”.
FROM Eric Kombat, Tamale