It has emerged that the Ford Expedition vehicle presented to former President John Dramani Mahama as gift by Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe is not part of the fleet of cars handed over to the government by the former administration.
The Ford Expedition gift became a subject of CHRAJ Investigations after Joy News’ Manasseh Azuri Awuni’s investigations into the circumstances that led to the award of a contract for the construction of a wall around a parcel of land for Ghana’s Embassy in Burkina Faso at the cost of $650,000.
Then Communications Minister, Edward Omane Boamah admitted that the 2010 Ford Gift was indeed presented to the President by the contractor but insisted that the Ford Expedition vehicle was added to government’s pool of vehicles at the Presidency.
“The said vehicle, which was placed in the vehicle pool at the Presidency as per established convention had nothing to do with the award of the contracts…,” the Minister said in a statement on 15th June, 2016.
This statement, Deputy Executive Director of the National Service Scheme (NSS), Nana Boakye commenting on the fleet of vehicles which are reportedly missing at the presidency said caused him to request that he be shown the Ford Expedition vehicle presented to the former President Mahama by the Burkinabe contractor.
“In fact, the Ford Expedition which they claimed they have added to the pool of vehicles is not part of the cars…I went to the Jubilee House yesterday and demanded to see that vehicle that Kanazoe gifted to Mahama…but to my dismay, I found out that the vehicle was not part of the cars handed over to this government…,” he said on Peace FM’s Morning Show, Kokrokoo.
Nana Boakye said further that there are only a hundred and seventy-three vehicles that were handed over to the Presidency.
This number contradicts the about 641 vehicles which former Deputy Chief of Staff, Johnny Osei Kofi said was handed over to the current administration.
“There are only 173 serviceable cars at the Presidency at the moment, each of them has its chassis numbers provided…there are also 45 unserviceable vehicles…,” he said.
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