Operatives of the National Security last Friday stormed the Head Office of the National Lottery Authority (NLA) in the bid to seek some clarification on the supply of some security thermal paper rolls.
This, according to sources, followed intelligence picked by the security outfit that there were issues with the procurement, supply and handling of the materials.
Available documents indicated that on 21st June 2021, the NLA awarded a contract for the supply of 135,000 pieces of security thermal rolls at the GH¢1,309,000.00 to Apollo Steel Ghana Limited.
The details of the contract stipulated that the items were to be delivered at the Head office of the NLA two weeks after the signing of the contract.
Again, the items were to be paid for, 90 days after supply had been made to the satisfaction of the NLA.
However, information gathered indicated 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.
Consequently, the National Security is probing 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 action was also said to be in violation of 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 any 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.
Due to the poor handling of the security thermal paper rolls some of them dropped from the trucks on its way to the Head of Office of the NLA, compromising the security of NLA operations.
Meanwhile, the NLA has not commented on the issue as all efforts to get the Corporate Affairs Department react have not yielded any results.
All this is happening at the time that the NLA under the its new leadership, has been in the news for some good reasons over the last few weeks giving people renewed hope.
There have been calls on the new Director-General to deal decisively with the endemic corruption within the state-owned Lottery Authority.
The NLA was said to be bleeding financially due to apparently due to corruption and misapplication of funds.
