Smarttys Management and Production Limited, the company owned by Ghanaian actress and television host Selassie Ibrahim, has been drawn into another scandal weeks after a major one.

The company is caught in a complex web of an alleged contract overpricing for a national electrification project.

The company, which recently agreed to repay back monies earned from a branding exercise they did for the state which turned out to be bloated, has been fingered in a $92m National Electrification Project. The figure is said to be overpriced by some nine million dollars.

Ghana’s Parliament approved the deal at a sitting Monday, despite protests from the Minority MPs.

The project involves the extension of electricity to some 556 communities in Volta, Eastern and Northern Regions of Ghana.

Smarttys is representing China Hunan Construction Engineering Group, the firm contracted to handle the project. An audit by a private firm reveals the figure has been overpriced.

“Mr. Speaker, I haven’t said anybody has stolen money so please don’t add that in the Hansard. All I am saying is that, if the government did any due diligence and found out that the local representative of this contract is the same contractor who has been found to overbill the government in similar contract, we would have advised ourselves. Mr. Speaker, even by the World Bank procurement laws, that company that has been found in one corner of the world abusing a World Bank process is banned from all World Bank projects for a number of years.

“How come the government negotiators, lawyers, economists and deputy Ministers all did not find out that there is a similarity between Smarttys in this contract and Smarttys in the rebranding. Smarttys overbilling here, Smarttys overbilling there, Smarttys overbilling everywhere….Mr. Speaker, we are talking about due diligence,” NPP MP for Manhyia South, Mathew Opoku Prempeh said.

source: livefmghana.com