Operatives of National Security on Friday 22nd October, 2021 stormed the Head Office of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) in a bid to seek clarification on intelligence picked.
Sources say it was in connection with the procurement, supply and handling of NLA’s security thermal paper rolls.
Documents cited show that on 21st June 2021, the NLA awarded a contract for the supply of 135,000 pieces of security thermal rolls at a sum GH¢ 1,309,000.00 to Apollo Steel Ghana Limited.
The details of the contract stipulate that the items are to be delivered at the Head office of the NLA two weeks after the signing of the contract.
The items were to be paid for 90 days after supply had been made to the satisfaction of the NLA.
This newspaper can say on authority that before the supply could be made, the then Acting Director-General, Mr. Ernest Mote in July 2021 directed one of the collaborators of the NLA to pay the GH¢ 1,309,000.00 to Apollo Steel Ghana Limited on behalf of the NLA.
The National Security is on a mission to find out why the NLA authorized its collaborator to make financial commitments on its behalf and why those authorizations were made even before Apollo Steel Ghana Limited delivered the items in clear contravention of the contract between the two institutions, the Public Financial Management Act and the Public Procurement Act.
Another issue under investigation is that the said security thermal paper rolls were produced in Nigeria without security print compliance procedures and were transported by cargo trucks to Ghana through the Aflao border.
The thermal paper rolls were hidden and mixed among consumable products (biscuits, drinks, toiletries etc) and smuggled into Ghana at the Aflao border last Friday, 22nd October 2021, without paying the required duties on them.
Because of the poor handling of the security thermal paper rolls some of them dropped from the trucks on its way to the Head Office of the NLA and compromising the security of NLA operations.
Source: Mypublisher24.com