Four persons interdicted over expired chemical use for water treatment

Four officers of the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) and Ghana Urban Water Limited (GUWL) have been interdicted in the alleged expired Aluminium Sulphate for water treatment saga.

They are Ms Dora A. Bonnah, Procurement officers of GUWL, Mr David Yankson, Procurement Officer, GWCL, Mr Edwin Kwamivi, Logistics Officer and Mr Evans Balaara, Chief Manager, Water Quality Assurance of GUWL.

The four were interdicted after a five-member committee set up by the Minister of Water Resources Works and Housing presented its report in Accra on Wednesday.

Their interdiction is to facilitate further investigation into the matter by the Bureau of National Investigation.

Alhaji Collins Dauda, Minister of Water Resources, Works and Housing said the committee was set up to among other things establish whether expired Alum was imported and used by GUWL for treating water.

He said the committee established that Messrs Santa Baron Ventures Limited won the contract through international competitive tendering procedure to supply 12,000 metric tonnes of bagged granules of alum, in August 2010.

He said the first consignment of 1,250 was cleared without difficulty; however the second and third consignments totalling 750 metric tonnes faced challenges during clearing, but were finally cleared in August 2012 and January 2013.

According to the committee, the supplier handed the original documents needed for the clearing of the chemicals to the procurement officer GWCL, who agreed receiving the document but did not open it until a week when the logistics officer returned from leave.

He said the logistics officer after taking the unopened folder to his office, returned to inform his boss that the documents were photocopies, and so could not be used to clear the chemicals, causing the delay in clearing the chemicals until January 2013, when the label on them indicated that they had expired.

The committee also reported that, while the chemicals still remained at the port, the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) upon the request of GWCL took samples and tested them before the Ghana Revenue Authority (CEPS Division) allowed it to be cleared, and delivered to the warehouse of the GWCL.

He said upon a directive from the Chief Manager, Water Quality Assurance at the GWCL, an order was placed to supply a quantity of 7, 500 bags of the alleged expired Alum to Weija.

The committee observed that in evaluating the bid documents of Messrs Santa Baron Ventures Limited, due diligence was not done, that by the time when the Alum entered the port they were not expired, and that 0.7 per cent of the total of 1, 200 metric tonnes was used at Weija treatment plan.

Alhaji Dauda said the committee also observed that the request of the GWCL for the GSA to certify the potency of the alum and declaring it potent was contrary to the Authority’s mandates as per their Act NRCD 173.

“In the opinion of the committee, the testing of the alleged expired alum by the GSA was clearly not within the mandates of the Authority.”

He said the committee has recommended that the retrieved expired alum should continue to be in the custody of National Security and both procurement officers of GWCL and GUWL should be held responsible for failing to handle the procurement and clearing of the alum professionally.

It also recommended that the logistics officer at GWCL should also be held partly responsible for the delay in clearing the chemical, and that the supplier should be made to provide explanation for the one year shelf life from the Manufacturer, and monitored closely in executing the second contract.

“The committee finds the one year shelf life of the alleged expired alum as strange, since it is a stable inorganic salt, which would not expire when stored in good conditions,” the Minister said.

Mr Dauda asked that further investigation be done by the Bureau of National Investigations into the circumstances that led to the undue delay in the clearance of the chemical, circumstances leading to the loss of the original documents for clearing the chemicals and the rationale behind the testing of the alleged expired alum by GSA.

Source: GNA