Chairman of the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC), Professor Paul Kingsley Buah-Bassuah astounded many participants at a public forum in Bolgatanga when he declared that the money used to rebrand the Metro Mass Buses by Smarttys had been refunded.
“What was used for the rebranding of the Metro Mass Transit buses has been refunded in full. The petroleum component has been refunded, that is the GH¢3.6 million has been paid to the country according to our report,” he said.
When the PIAC Chairman made declaration at the public forum on the 2015 Annual Report on the Management of Petroleum Revenues in Ghana, the participants expressed surprise because nothing had been heard about the matter since January 2016 when news broke that Smarttys Management and Productions, which rebranded the 116 Chinese Huanghai buses for Metro Mass Transit, had repaid a portion of the GH¢3.6 million.
Professor Buah-Bassuah disclosed that the GH¢3.6 million that was paid to Smarttys for the project which many Ghanaians and civil society organisations described as needless investment, constituted 9 percent of the allocation from the Petroleum Revenue to the transport sector in 2015.
Later in an interview with the media, Prof. P.K Buah-Bassuah said “the amount, which came up in my presentation-that amount has been refunded according to our report.”
The PIAC was in the Upper East Region to hold public forum to educate the public on how government managed the Petroleum Revenue in 2015 and inspected projects executed in that year.
Deputy Upper East Regional Minister, Robert Kuuganab, who graced the occasion, said government is committed to the judicious use of all the Petroleum Revenue to lessen the plight of all Ghanaians, adding that the activities of PIAC would help protect the interest of the public.
According to him, the Upper East Region has so far benefited from the petroleum revenue in areas such agriculture, education and roads, stressing that soon many more sectors in the region would benefit from the revenue.
From Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga