Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) has reacted to a press statement said to have been issued by its outfit by Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa.

Mr Ablakwa, in efforts to prove that Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, awarded a US$48million contract without Public Procurement Authority (PPA) approval cited a statement dated December 15, 2021 from GIFEC.

Per the statement titled "Proof of existing contract between Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications and Ascend Digital Solutions Limited", there is an existing contract with Ascend Digital Solutions, a Nigerian company Mr Ablakwa claims has hijacked the Communications & Digitalization sector.

Acting Administrator of GIFEC, Prince Ofosu Sefah, who is a signature to the said letter confirmed that the Nigerian company is currently executing on behalf of GIFEC a contract for Engineering Design, Build, Rollout and Telephony Project involving Cell Sites in the 2016 communities.

"Ascend Digital Solutions Limited has been delivering these services to us since February 2020," the letter revealed, adding that "the duration of the Build and Rollout Contract is until August 2023, while the Managed Services Contract is renewable, after an initial agreement for two years."

But in a statement dated July 7, 2023, GIFEC noted that "the Administrator does not recall issuing the said letter."

According to the company, the two-year old statement does not bear requisite characteristics of an official GIFEC letter, with a reference number and trypically contains other features which are lacking on the said letter.

"Extensive checks at the GIFEC Secretariat also, indicates that there is no record of such letter being issued," the statement added.

With regards to the substantive subject matter of the Ghana Rural Telephony and DigitalInclusion Project (GRT&DIP), GIFEC confirmed that it is implementing the project on behalf of the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation (MoCD), and thecontractual technical partners are Huawei and CNTIC.

All applicable approvals for the GRT&DIP contract (Cabinet, Parliamentary and PublicProcurement Authority) are in place," GIFEC noted.

In view of this, GIFEC asserted that it is not undertaking any contract not approved by all relevant authorities.

"GIFEC has been hard at work over the last couple of years, implementing this unprecedented and beneficial national project on behalf of the MoCD and in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, towards closing the Digital Divide," it added.

The role of GIFEC in the US$48million contract scandal came to being after Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful challenged Mr Ablakwa to provide evidence that her outfit awarded the said contract to Ascend Digital Solutions Limited.

Mr Ablakwa in a Facebook post on July 6, 2023, accused Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful of awarding a US$48million contract awarded without Public Procurement Authority (PPA) approval.

He made this claim while citing a PPA’s response to his request made under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The request dated 8th June was titled “REQUEST FOR INFORMATION,” and read in part: “Respectfully, can you confirm if the Public Procurement Authority has granted procurement approval as required per the Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as amended with (Act 914) to Ascend Digital Solutions under a US$48 million Rural Telephony Project contract purportedly for Engineering, Design, Build, Rollout and Managed Services which is being executed by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalization since the year 2020.”

The PPA in its response dated 30th June, 2023 and signed by Deputy Chief Executive Kwame Prempeh per the letter shared by the North Tongu MP read: “We wish to inform you that our records do not reflect any information of the above-mentioned project.”

But Mrs Ursusla Owusu-Ekuful insisted the claims levelled against her by Mr Ablakwa are false and asked him to “please produce the contract you claim I signed without PPA approval.”