Government to probe alleged diversion of $6m health research cash by NDC

General News of Saturday, 20 October 2018

Source: Myjoyonline.com

2018-10-20

Joseph Dindiok Kpemkaplay videoDeputy Attorney General, Joseph Dindiok Kpemka

Deputy Attorney General has revealed that a number of state agencies will be probing the alleged diversion of $6million health research money by the previous John Mahama regime.

Joseph Dindiok Kpemka speaking on MultiTV/Joy FM’s Newsfile programme said the revelation will trigger investigations.

“When acts like this are mentioned state actors will not go to sleep at all. It will trigger investigations and statements will be taken from the appropriate persons including and not limited to some of those who have spoken,” he said.

The legislator’s comment follows a Joy News investigative report which uncovered how part of a $175 million loan contracted to build seven hospitals in Ghana was diverted into an NDC research.

The research details a discreet work on political and health survey by UK-based SCL Social, the mother company of Cambridge Analytica (CA).

CA, a data analytics firm used personal information harvested from more than 50 million Facebook profiles without permission to build a system that could target US voters with personalised political advertisements based on their psychological profile

But in Ghana, its other company SCL Social was contracted by the Health ministry under the Mahama administration to ‘test the attitudes and perceptions of the population towards contemporary issues faced in Ghana…’

The company was paid $6 million for its a sub-contracted work under a $175 million project awarded to British infrastructure company NMS for the construction of seven district hospitals and an integrated IT system.

The exact wording of the contract: “The work consists of two discrete political and public health elements”.

Rojo Mettle-Nunoo, who was an administrator of the Mahama campaign team admitted knowing SCL Social and confirmed crucial campaign intelligence was gathered through a research.

But he has declined comment about whether the work done by SCL Social is the same research presented to the NDC.

The Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has requested further evidence after the Joy News report and his office is likely to open preliminary investigations into the issue after studying the evidence.

Nevertheless, the Deputy Attorney General said the state will invite those involved for them to affirm what they have said.

“If there is a component of the loan agreement that stated that part of it could be used to conducting political research whether the NDC was going to win power, everybody is vindicated and we move on.

“If there is nothing like that then it is a clear case of misappropriation and the appropriate penal consequences will be exacted,” he said.

In support of such a probe is governance analyst Dr. Eric Oduro Osai who says if it emerges a dime of public funds was used for the political research, a case of misapplication of funds should be prosecuted by the AG.

قالب وردپرس