The Public Procurement Authority (PPA) has said the concession granted IBISTEK Ghana Limited to develop and operate an on-dock container and multi-purpose terminal project at Port Takoradi followed due process.
The authority said this in a document sighted by the B&FT after our publication in the Friday, March 2, 2018, edition of the newspaper, which cites a letter issued by Finance Minister Ken Ofori Atta for the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority to abrogate the contract.
The procurement authority said, as demanded by the Finance Minister, it had convened a meeting of the parties involved in the matter, and concluded upon reviewing the contract that it had followed due process.
In a February 5, 2018 letter to the Finance Minister, the authority said termination of the contract “would have severe legal consequences for this project”.
It advised, however, that the GPHA consider a financial option “that provides for the achievement of best value for money for this project”.
The Finance Minister had in a letter dated December, 29, 2017 asked the GPHA to abrogate the concession granted IBISTEK, and reopen a competitive procurement process it had truncated in respect of the project.
The project is titled ‘The Development and Operations of On-dock Container and Multipurpose Terminal Project to Upgrade and Expand the Port of Takoradi’, and is under the Ghana Public Private Partnership Project of the World Bank Group.
In its letter to the Finance Minister, the procurement authority said it had responded to similar concerns raised by the World Bank on the matter, and had assured the bank that there was no illegality nor circumvention of processes.
The Ghanaian investment firm IBISTEK Ghana Limited announced plans last year that it was to build and operate a multi-purpose on-dock terminal that would help drive traffic to the country’s exports-based Takoradi Port.
Construction of the terminal was expected to shore-up the cargo throughput capacity of Takoradi Port to about one million total enclosed units (TEUs) from the current average of about 63,000.
It said the deal, which spans a period of 25 years, aligns with the GPHA’s Master Plan to develop and reposition the port to meet increasing demand and create much-needed jobs.
