Alhaji Said Sinare
FORMER GHANA Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Alhaji Said Sinare, and the Head of Chancery, Martin Adu Ago, have been cited for allegedly paying an amount of US$60,000 to Glinco Construction and Engineering Limited for no work done.
The payment was meant for consultancy services in respect of the construction of a residency at Ghana’s Mission in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The Auditor General (AG), in its 2017 report to Parliament, captured it as a “fictitious payment,” pointing, “Our further checks revealed that, although there was no evidence of work done, the mission paid the amount to the company.”
The AG said US$60,000, which is an equivalent of GH¢293,400, was paid on January 2017 into an Account No. 0850415167915 with the Royal Bank Limited in Accra with PV No. 0591921 in favour of Glinco Construction and Engineering Limited.
“Our follow-up at the Registrar-General’s Department, Accra, revealed that the company (Glinco Construction Engineering Ltd) was incorporated on January 7, 2017, three days after the payment,” the report indicated.
It said management responded that the mission was neither aware of such a project nor any record of a consultant by name Glinco Construction and Engineering Limited, therefore, it recommended to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to recover the $60,000 from the former Ambassador, Alhaji Said Sinare and the Head of Chancery, Martin Adu Ago, failure of which they would be surcharged.
Committee Sitting
At the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) sitting in Parliament on Wednesday, it emerged that an approval for payment of the $60,000 was made on June 13, 2016 by the former ambassador for the alleged non-existing project at the Riyadh Mission.
In a memo to the Foreign Affairs Ministry directed to the Director Estate, Humphrey, Alhaji Sinare, who is currently a National Vice Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), wrote: “With reference to the Ministry’s letter dated April 13, 2016 on the above subject, Mission wishes to seek for approval of payment of $60,000 to Glinco Construction Engineering Limited, the architects who the drawings and the bill of quantities for the construction of the new residency at the Diplomatic Quarters in Riyadh for the Ghana Embassy.”
It also came out that the Glinco Construction and Engineering Limited was incorporated under the Companies Code, 1963 (Act 179) on April 17, 2013, contrary to an assertion that it came into being on January 7, 2017, three days after the payment.
PAC Directive
Chairman of PAC and NDC MP for Ketu North, James Klutse Avedzi, directed that the officials of the Auditor General and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, should go and reconcile the differences and report back to the committee in a week’s time.
BY Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House