<<Print>>

It has emerged that no money has yet been paid by the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) in connection with a contract signed with IPMC to install a state of the art payroll software for the Youth Employment Agency.

Volumes of documentary evidence available to Citi News show that although the parties signed a contract worth 341,795.79 UDS for the installation of the payroll software, the contract is yet to be executed.

The documents also revealed that the push for an in-house payroll for the Youth Employment Agency was triggered by Kobby Acheampong, a former Chief Executive of the Agency.

In a December 22, 2014 letter to the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, Mr. Acheampong, then Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) served notice of his administration’s quest to procure a payroll software for GYEEDA.

In the said letter, Mr Acheampong wrote, “The Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA) present herein our procurement plan for year 2015 to the Ministry. The Programme (GYEEDA) intends to procure the following items during the 2015 budget year.”

The letter mentioned procurement of “payroll software” as its foremost priority for the year 2015 and also served notice of plans to buy “office equipment” and “security module items.”

“We have budgeted to finance this acquisition out of our receipt from the Communication Service Tax,” Mr Acheampong’s letter said. It added, “We would be glad if the Ministry could initiate the procurement process of these items.”

In his instructions to the procurement unit of the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Minister for the sector, Haruna Iddrissu, wrote, “Please subject all procurement to open and competitive bidding to ensure value for money.”

Our investigations showed that in line with the Minister’s instructions and in conformity with the provisions of the Procurement Act, the Procurement arm of the Ministry caused a notice to be published in the February 18, 2015 edition of the Daily Graphic under the heading “Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations Acting On Behalf of Youth Employment Agency (YEA). Request For Expression Of Interest. Consulting Services For Installation of YEA Payroll Software.”

As a result of the publication, seven firms submitted proposals by tender closing date after which an Evaluation Panel was constituted to evaluate the proposals.

The panel included at least two officials of the Youth Employment Agency, according to detailed documents seen by Citi News, indicating that recent reports that the Management of the YEA was not aware of the payroll software procurement processes may have been false.

At the end of the evaluation, 3 consulting firms were shortlisted. The first was IPMC, followed by Persol Systems Limited and then Pro Vision.

It has also emerged that the procurement process led to two ICT giants being identified as potential contractors. They are Persol Systems Limited and IPMC.

The Ministry settled on IPMC to install the payroll software with a plan to eliminate a tradition under GYEEDA that saw staff being paid from polythene bags and under the table.

Citi News understands that the choice of IPMC was because its proposal and contract sum offered what officials called “value for money” and was fairly cheaper than the cost quoted by Persol Systems Limited.

Indeed, whereas Persol’s bid put its contract sum at 364,900 USD, the IPMC voted to execute the contract at 341,795.75 USD.

After its work, the evaluation panel wrote a report that said in part, “From the foregoing analysis, it is recommended that the Youth Employment Agency enter into contract with M/S IPMC to provide Consulting Services for the Supply and Installation of the Ibisframe Payroll Software at a total contract sum of 359,785.00 inclusive of taxes for a contract period of two months.”

Citi News understands that although IPMC later signed a contract with the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations in respect of the payroll software, the contract has not been executed and no money has been paid to the contractor.