Parliament has halted a supply contract between the Government, represented by the Ministry of Communication, and the ZTE Corporation of China for supply of dedicated security information system.
The move to stop the over US$129.9 Million contract was as a result of discrepancies detected in a report, particularly, the indemnity clause of the purchaser, presented on the floor of the House yesterday by the joint committee on Communications and Defence and Interior.
Members of Parliament (MPs) expressed worry about how the agreement would not favour Ghana and noted that some clauses in the contract did not provide definite timelines on the contract.
According to the report presented by the Chairman of the Communications Committee, Cobbina Herod, �except to the extent that the Purchaser indemnifies the Contractor and except for claims that arise from the Purchaser�s negligence or willful misconduct, the Contractor agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Purchaser� from and against any and all claims.�
�The Contractor shall pay all costs incurred by the Purchaser in connection with any such defence unless the Purchaser chooses to defend itself, in which case it would be at the Purchaser�s own cost,� the report said.
Also, �except for that the Contractor indemnifies Purchaser and except for claims which arise from Contractor�s negligence or willful misconduct, the Purchaser agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Contractor from any losses from claims of personal injury arising from Purchaser�s sale and distribution of the product.�
�The Purchaser shall pay all costs, expenses and reasonable attorneys� fees incurred by the Contractor in connection with any such defence, unless the Contractor chooses to defend himself� the report added.
It further noted that �this indemnity does not expire upon termination of this contract, but shall remain in force and effect thereafter.�
The committee observed that the indemnification by Purchaser did not in any way favour the Purchaser, which is Government of Ghana, but fully skewed to favour only the Contractor.
The committee also observed that there was no particular Article or Clause that clearly states the obligations of the Contractor towards the Purchaser and this thus gave room for the former to deny any particular obligation as and when the issue may arise.
The committee thus recommended that that portion of the agreement be either modified accordingly or deleted altogether.
The first Deputy Speaker, Ebo Barton Oduro, hence directed that the contract be reworked on by the sector ministry and the committee to ensure due diligence.
The contract, according to the report, is to source for the necessary funds for the Global Open Trucking Architecture (GOTA) project which was commenced in 2007 for the nation�s public services.
The GOTA system is a trucking system based on Code Division Multiple Access 2000 technology. The system provides high speed wireless data service, in compliance with the International Telecommunications Union standard.
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