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| The Justice Addo Committee set up by the government to investigate the sale and purchase agreement between Ghana and Vodafone presented its findings to the Minister of Communications, Haruna Iddrisu, in Accra yesterday, Monday, September 7, 2009.
The Committee was set up in May this year to determine whether the country had value for money in the sales agreement and also to find out the true owners of the Netherlands based Vodafone BV which acquired majority shares in Ghana Telecom.
It was also mandated to investigate the inclusion of the national fibre optic backbone, being implemented with a 30-million dollars load from the Exim Bank of China, in the transaction.The committee was given 90 days within which to complete its work but the time was extended for another 15 days. The sale of 70 per cent majority shares in Ghana Telecom to Vodafone last year by the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) government was met with a lot of criticisms from the public and the then opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC.
In compliance with its campaign promise to review the agreement, the NDC government set up the committee to investigate the deal and to accordingly advise government on the transaction. Receiving the report, Mr Iddrisu commended the committee members for their sacrifice in working on “such an important and delicate issue.”
He said government would scrutinize the report and the recommendations which would guide its next line of action.
The Minister said government was aware of the ramifications of any decision that it would take to review the deal.He reiterated the government’s commitment to run an open and transparent administration, which he said, would be evident in all its decisions where the interest of the country was concerned, and was hopeful that the committee’s report “will guide government to secure the interest of the public.”
Mr Iddrisu said he was “unable to make any further comments” on the report, but promised to inform the public as soon as a decision was taken on the matter.Justice Emmanuel Acquaye Addo, a retired Court of Appeal Judge, who chaired the committee, also declined to comment on the committee’s findings. | | |
