Presidency has denied that it has ordered the purchase of a Presidential Jet as being alluded to in the current public discussion on the proposal for the acquisition of some equipment for the Ghana Air Force. A release issued by the Press Secretary to the President and the Presidential Spokesman, Mr Andrew Awuni, in Accra yesterday explained that what the Presidency had done "regarding this matter is to put before Parliament an elaborate and comprehensive request from the Ghana Air Force for re-equipping its communications squadron". The statement said the request covered the purchase of about six military aircraft, including two Y121 military planes, two MA60 passenger planes, one Airbus Jet 319, and one Falcon 900. "It is for the purchase of these aircraft that financial proposals have been laid before Parliament for consideration and approval in line with the Constitution," it said. The statement further explained that the recommendations in respect of the purchase of the Falcon 900 and the Airbus planes were made in 1997, long before the Gulf Stream Presidential plane was purchased by the then government. According to the statement, last year the Ghana Air Force Command sent an urgent memorandum to the government on the poor state of their equipment and warned that their current fleet of aircraft would be grounded by 2010, due to old age. The request also made recommendations as to what measures needed to be taken to forestall the imminent danger that they faced, should the re-equipping process suffer implementation difficulties. Subsequent to that, the statement said, the Ministry of Finance had been working with the Ministry of Defence and the Air Force Command to arrange the necessary credit facilities for the purchase of the equipment subject to approval from the Parliament of Ghana. The statement said the government would wish to re-emphasise that no payments had been made to any seller yet in respect of this proposal and the public must rest assured that the due process would be followed. Source: Daily Graphic