GIDISU DENIES RECEIVING BMW CAR AS GIFT

THE Minister of Roads and Highways, Mr Joe Gidisu, has denied reports of receiving a 2010 model BMW 7 series valued at $166,000 as a gift from Chinese contractors working on the Achimota-Ofankor highway.

Speaking to the Daily Graphic in Accra Monday, Mr Gidisu said reports that the vehicle had been seized on the orders of President John Evans Atta Mills were not only false, but attempts calculated to dent his image.

With supporting documents to buttress his point, the minister stated that the $166,000 cost quoted as the price for the vehicle was even inaccurate.

Mr Gidisu said the vehicle in question was purchased as an integral part of the road project, which is usual with the ministry and other ministries which implement projects.

According to Mr Gidisu, the vehicle cost was a provision in the contract sum, which necessitated the contractor, China Railway Wuju Group Corporation, to purchase it in advance but in a letter dated May 2, 2011 to the ministry, demanded payment for the vehicle after they had purchased it.

‘’The vehicle was subsequently acquired by the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA), an agency under his ministry, with all documentations covering request and purchase in the name of the GHA on behalf of the ministry, thus assertions of it being meant as a gift to me as Joe Gidisu were mere fallacies,” he said.

He indicated that realising that the vehicle was too luxurious for him, he, in a letter dated August 21, 2011 to the Chief of Staff, said, ‘’I am, therefore, requesting for a vehicle with a lower capacity. I believe the BMW would be more useful at your office for protocol duties of which this type of vehicle is most appropriate.”

After the correspondence, he said the vehicle was replaced with a Toyota Camry by the Chief of Staff’s office.

Similarly, Mr Gidisu denied widespread speculations that national security operatives stormed his office and confiscated the said vehicle, saying, ‘’I personally drove the vehicle to the Presidency, since it had already been purchased and paid for and can, therefore, not be reverted to the garage.”

Source: Della Russel Ocloo, Daily Graphic, Sept 6, 2011