<<Print>>

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Stephen Amoah, has debunked what he termed ‘deceptive propaganda’ by former President John Dramani Mahama.

During one of his campaign tours of Accra before Easter Friday, the former President ‘incited’ commercial drivers against the government.

He claimed he bought many cars under MASLOC but the current Akufo-Addo NPP administration had refused to release them to members of the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU).

“The NDC procured some buses under MASLOC, but there seems to be some people pending issues and the buses are still there. I will like to plead with the government to revisit that issue and ask those in charge to release the buses so that the drivers can use them to convey people around.  When the cars are not used, they begin to rot away after lying idle for so long,” he said.

However, Mr. Amoah, who did not take the issue lightly, criticized the former President for his stance, adding “With all respect, I beg him. He shouldn’t be saying these things always.”

Mr. Amoah, in interview with Citi FM last Thursday, expressed shock at the manner in which the ex-President was trying to peddle falsehoods about the MASLOC vehicles.

The CEO said that challenges with the MASLOC vehicles started under the previous Mahama administration.

He said the prices of some 350 vehicles procured under MASLOC’s Hire Purchase Scheme for members of the GPRTU in 2016 were grossly inflated.

“Because of the prices of the cars, people are not even ordering for them any more from us. Only eight of the buses have been bought. For the small cars, a few have been bought because of Uber,” Mr. Amoah said.

Interestingly, the former CEO Sedina Tamakloe Attionu and another former official at an Accra High Court have been hauled before court over the MASLOC saga.

The trial of the two has not started, but the Attorney General’s Department has charged them for allegedly supervising a contract with Mac Autos on December 6, 2016 to supply MASLOC with 350 vehicles, comprising 150 Chevy Aveo Saloon, 100 Chevy Sparklite and 33-seater Isuzu buses without approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

The unit price offered by Mac Autos to MASLOC for the Chevy Aveo, according to government, was GH¢74,495 ($18,883.39).

Government asserted that its investigations revealed that the actual retail price Mac Autos offered for the same model within the same year without duty was GH¢47,346.93 ($12,009.91).

The unit price offered for the Chevy Sparklite was GH¢65,095.00 ($16,500.63) when the actual price offered by Mac Autos within that same period was GH¢35,918.37 ($9,104.77) without duty.

For the Isuzu 33-seater buses, the unit price offered to MASLOC was GH¢445,560 ($112,942.96), but the actual retail price without duty, according to the government, was GH¢293,877.55 ($74,493.67).

The two are facing about 78 counts of stealing and causing financial loss to the state, and they have all pleaded not guilty.