Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Dominic Ayine, has disclosed that the previous New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration overpaid J.A. Plant Pool, the firm contracted under the District Roads Improvement Programme (DRIP), by an amount of $2 million, despite the total cost of the procured machines being just over $1 million.

According to him, "In the case of DRIP, they were overpaid, that is J.A Plant Pool was overpaid $2 million, the contract sum was $176 million. When we examined the invoices of payment, it was $178 million that was paid so right a way, there was a different of $2 million," he disclosed at the Government’s Accountability Series on Wednesday.

"We noticed that, the DRIP equipment were over invoice by between 100 to 300 percent," he added.

Dr Ayine further revealed that during the importation process, 190 additional pieces of equipment were shipped alongside the DRIP machinery and cleared at the port under the false claim that they formed part of the project. "We also realised that, 190 pieces of equipment were added and cleared without payment of tax, in other words, they were added to the list as if they were tax exempt," he said.

He said the act resulted in tax evasion amounting to over GH₵38 million. " When they did the analysis, it came out that GH₵38.7 million of taxes were evaded."

The Attorney General stated that his office has directed J.A. Plant Pool to refund the excess payment to the state and has tasked the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) to recover the outstanding tax obligations.

The DRIP was an initiative of the erstwhile Akufo-Addo government aimed at facilitating rapid infrastructure development across the nation at the district level.

Each Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies received more than one machine, ranging from excavators and trucks to tipper trucks and other heavy road construction equipment.