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Since the Attorney-General and the Ministry of Transport handed over some twenty-two (22) documents covering the Smarttys MMT Bus-Rebranding deal to OccupyGhana, the Pressure Group has been serializing the 'transaction' by putting out snippets and teasers of the document on its facebook wall.

Peacefmonline.com reproduces for publication, the first in the series of teasers regarding the deal culled from the group's official fb social media timeline.

Read below REASON #1 for the Transport Ministry's decision to award the contract to Smartty's.


On 28th July 2015, some 2 months AFTER Smarttys had completed the branding of the buses, the Chief Director of the Ministry for Transport, signing on behalf of the Minister, then wrote to the Public Procurement Agency (PPA) for approval to sole-source the branding contract to Smarttys.

The Ministry gave 4 reasons for giving this contract to Smarttys alone, and not opening it up for competitive bidding. Those reasons, of course, did not include the fact that Smarttys had already concluded the branding, and for that reason, there was no way any other person could be given the contract to do what Smarttys had already done under the sweetheart deal. We will examine each of these 4 reasons in turn, for the people to determine whether this was right or wrong.

The first reason was "URGENCY," as follows: The buses had been purchased under a social intervention program. However, the colour code which had been selected for the buses was "not consistent with the current branding policy of the Ministry." There was therefore the need to brand them with the faces of the present and past leaders to recognize and appreciate their contribution to Ghana's development.

Does this add up? Does this make sense? The buses were purchased in the first place under another sole sourcing contract. In determining the colours when the buses were being purchased, was the Ministry unaware of its own so-called branding policy? Who approved of that policy and when and by which means was it legislated? Where is that policy document and may we see a copy? Why would the Ministry with a branding policy on colours, order buses in allegedly wrong colours and then use almost $1m of our monies just to change their colours? Why was the person who ordered the buses in allegedly the wrong colours not surcharged with the cost of simply respraying them? And when have Ghanaians been bothered about the colour in which a bus is sprayed? What was the original colour and what made that colour so repugnant that more of our monies had to be spent to change it? And how do you change the colours by putting the faces of the president and former leaders on them? Is it not the case that the buses were not resprayed at all and that all that happened was the embossment of portions of them with the faces of the president and former leaders?

This was one childish, empty, vacuous, corrupt and silly lie that the PPA should have seen through, unless, the PPA, in spite of the good intentions that led to its establishment, has at best become a pliable and malleable tool in the hands of political actors, or at worst, an active participant in corrupt transactions.