Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) IT boss blows $1.5m

The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA) has been shaken with report of massive corruption under the leadership of the previous board during the Mahama administration, amounting to millions of dollars.

David Boison, the Information Technology (IT) Manager of GPHA, is alleged to have inflated the cost of procuring IT solutions for the authority through sole-sourcing, which has left most workers and IT experts in shock.

Most of the software were reportedly never used.

Commonly called King, the IT manager is said to have colluded with the former board in the alleged dubious contracts in the last three years and made over $1.5 million from the apparent malfeasances under the supervision of the former Director-General of the Port, Richard Anamoo.

Internal investigations carried out by the authority from 2014 to 2017 revealed that the alleged overpriced contracts and failure of the IT manager to provide expert advice, as well as due diligence in the performance of his duty, as the lead negotiator and executor of several IT-related projects, had tainted the image of the authority in a financial malfeasance.

According to the internal five-member committee report, Mr. Boison allegedly supervised the procurement of inventors, stabilisers and batteries for an integrated IT project for the authority, costing $736,666.26, but the items were never supplied and installed, albeit 80 percent of the total cost had been paid by GPHA.

The IT manager was also purported to have high-priced the procurement of a Fortigate Firewall by $42,815.

The same Firewall was earlier acquired for the Takoradi Port at a cost of $83,000 but he claimed to have purchased it at $125,815.

A real estate, which the authority did not need, was also procured at $124,854 from Dynamics Netsoft Technology.

Mr David Boison again purchased an enterprise asset management software at $124,854 from Hofinsoft Technology in India, but was never used and has since expired because the authority does not need it.

On the ports automation, Mr Bosion quoted a Terminal Operating System (TOS) with hand-held devices in line with the port automation drive at a cost of $622,094 from Aeon Venture sometime in November 2016.

However, the same software with hand-held devices were procured at $201,720 from a South African firm, Junzo Investments, by the current administration after the abrogation of the previous contract with Aeon – an indication that the contract sum was overpriced by $420,374.

The IT manager was also alleged to have inflated the cost of a contract awarded to ZConic IT Solutions for the procurement of a Dynamix AX 2012 system, which has never been utilised since it was purchased at $30,000.

Besides the aforementioned alleged malpractices against Mr. Boison, the authority does not know the whereabouts of some 36 power stabilisers and batteries being part of a $275,648.29 contract awarded to Arrow Network Systems, since the items were never supplied and installed, though some payments were made by the GPHA.

Email conversations, among other evidence, were said to have exposed Mr Boison as being involved in several alleged dubious transactions in the report.

One of such emails to a vendor on July 8, 2016, reads: “Dear Boss, Pls let’s work around 170K and 30,000 for those we need to satisfy in the chain. That amount excludes withholding tax. So we should be looking at 200K, excluding VAT, to compute the total, Regards.”

The authority has since interdicted the IT manager after he had been summoned before the investigative committee and interrogated.

Meanwhile, GPHA has handed over the matter with evidence to the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) for further action.

Mr. Boison is being investigated for abuse of office and causing financial loss to the state.

However, some senior staff of GPHA strongly believe that the IT manager is being used as scapegoat by the previous board since the procurement of the IT solutions was ordered by it.

They therefore want EOCO to also deal with the previous board, headed by Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, as well as the immediate past Director-General.