The NPP government’s award of a revenue mobilization contract to I.T solutions provider, Bankswitch breached an Act of Parliament requiring Parliamentary approval for financial agreements, it has emerged.

Minister of State at the Finance Ministry Dr. Akoto Osei who signed the contract on behalf of government in 2007, told Joy FM Super Morning Show Tuesday the need for parliamentary approval “did not come up” during discussions with stakeholders at the time.

Article 181, Clause 5 of the 1992 constitution states:

(5) This article shall, with the necessary modifications by Parliament, apply to an international business or economic transaction to which the Government is a party as it applies to a loan.

The revelation is new fuel for controversy surrounding the cancellation of the contract which led to an award of a judgment debt in excess of 197 million cedis to Bankswitch.

The cancellation of the contract after a new government took over in 2009 is also another leg of the scandal. Two principal actors have claimed the cancellation of the contract was done against the express instruction of the late President Atta Mills.

More soon