1,703
I write officially to invoke the Jurisdiction of your outfit in accordance with the Special Prosecutor Act,Act 959,2017 on the grounds of possible Corruption,Procurement Malpractices and Tax Fraud against the Registrar of the Nurses and Midwifery Council Mr.Nyante. Case Number 1. PROCUREMENT BREACHESIt certainly looks like the registrar has thrown procurement procedures to the dogs at the Council.In the construction of a file house for the Council, the Registrar even before submitting names of three companies to the PPA for a restricted tender process had already assumed himself a contractor and started building the file house himself without recourse both internal and external procurement mechanisms.Withdrawing monies from the Council’s accounts at will with help of the Chief Accountant without due processes.A letter the PPA wrote to the Council in response to the registrar’s request is labelled and attached as Exhibit 2BIn this letter the cost of for construction of the file house was supposed to GHC400,000.In the letter the PPA asked the Registrar to seek concurrent approval from the Tender Review Board as per the value of procurement activity after the tender process.An event which never happened because the Registrar ended carrying the construction himself violating Section 38 (b) of the PPA Act 663.The names of the companies he submitted for a restricted tender were as follows.LIDA Ghana LtdPROSLYN LtdKODSON Transport LtdNone of these companies was used in the execution of the project in the end.Also the contract sum of GHC400 000 which the PPA granted approval for the restricted tender to progress was overspent at the end of the project by over GHC200,000 without going back to the PPA for the necessary approvals. The second Procurement violations were on the installation of Close Circuit Television Cameras usually referred to as CCTV cameras. In September,2015, a contract worth GHC549,364 was awarded to a company by name, JIN HONG YI Ltd. to supply and install CCTV cameras without any valid procurement procedure including approval from the PPA and the Tender Review Board due to the cash threshold.Secondly, there is enough proof that the contract value was over bloated bloated by over 300%.As at 2015, the average market value of 42 pieces of CCTV cameras for the highest resolution cameras was pegged around GHC150 000.But the Council spent over GHC500,000 in the procurement of just 42 pieces of lower resolution CCTV cameras.Proof of procurement and payment attached and labelled as Exhibit 2A Case Number 2:TAX FRAUDIn March 2014, the Council contracted a Company called Okore Technology at the instruction of the Registrar to supply furniture to the Council.Find notice of contract attached and labelled as Exhibit 1A Payment voucher raised for the payment of this contract which is attached and labelled as Exhibit 1A(i) indicates that a Withholding Tax of about GHC17,688 was accrued in the payment of about GHC415,688 to Okore Technology. Checks at the Ghana Revenue Authority however revealed that as at 2014 when this procurement was done, the Company Okore Technology was not registered with the Ghana Revenue Authority and was not paying taxes to the Government. Checks revealed that this Okore is owned by persons believed to be working within the Council including the Registrar who allegedly form this company to award internal contracts to themselves. Case Number 3.CORRUPTIONIt certainly looks as if the Registrar was really poised on siphoning the Council’s resources through all means possible and to cover his tracks, in November 2015, when the internal audit unit of the Council started raising concerns about his illegal activities at the Council, he wrote an internal memo with the subject: CESSATION OF PRE-AUDITThis memo is hereby attached an labelled as Exhibit 3AIn this Memo the Registrar Mr.Felix Nyante who was seeing the legitimate duty of the internal audit as a nuisance directed them to stop all PRE-AUDIT activities of the Council.And this included PRE-AUDIT activities done on all transactions and procurements of the Council. So since 2015, contrary to Public Financial Management Procedures there have not been a single audit done of the any of the Council’s transactions. Mr.Prosecutor, based the on information provided above and the necessary attachments as provided in this petition, we believe there is enough grounds to cause for an emergency preliminary investment into the activities of the Nurses and Midwifery Council since 2014 in accordance with the Laws of this Country. We also recommend that the Nurses and Midwifery through the Board of the Council, takes steps to strengthen the internal control mechanisms, checks and balances and other management procedures. We believe the Council should review the Signatories to its account to prevent future exploitations of the funds of the Council by future Registrars. We are looking forward to cooperate keenly with the Office of the Special Prosecutor to arrive at a meaning conclusion of this matter and will therefore make ourselves readily availability anytime our services will be needed in the process. Thank you and Counting on your usual Cooperation. Signed:Mensah Thompson Executive Director ASEPSource:broadcastergh.com /Ayisah Foster 
