The Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL) has replied a Right To Information Request in regards to the contract with Frontiers Health services from Accra-based JoyNews by saying that the information requested falls under trade secrets that cannot be revealed.
JoyNews reports it had sought information about the contract that Frontiers was
Managing Director of GACL, Pamela Djamson-Tettey, in her response, explained that the said information is exempted under Section 10 of the Right to Information Act, 2019, Act 989.
The said regulation states: “Information is exempt from disclosure prior to official publication where the information contains trade secrets or financial, commercial, scientific or technical information that belongs to the State or public institution and the information has monetary or a potential monetary value.
The section being arbitrarily quoted by the GACL also said an information amounts to trade secrets if its disclosure can reasonably be expected to affect the integrity or stability of the financial system; cause a disruption of business or trade in the country, among others.
However, the Frontier deal was fraudulent in the first place. It did not go through requisite parliamentary oversight and it was riddled with cronyism and possible money laundering to the detriment of the Ghanaian economy.
According to the report, Mrs. Djamson-Tettey also said the GACL itself does not know exactly how Frontiers was hired by the Akufo-Addo government to test for COVID-19 at KIA.
Frontiers, believed to belong to Nigerian billionaire, Benedict Peters, was curiously contracted to undertake the COVID-19 testing at the KIA in spite of the fact that Ghana has a whole Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Service.
Benedict Peters is known to be a close friend of President Akufo Addo.
In November 2021, Transport Minister, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, told Parliament that Frontiers had raked in over USD17million and paid royalties of some USD1.7million to government.
The Ghana Airport Company Limited on the other hand received US$1,167,300 for the same period as royalties accruing from COVID-19 testing.
This huge profit had resulted from Frontiers charging a whopping USD150 per test at the KIA until the AU asked all countries to charge only USD50 per test.
Nobody knows how Frontiers was selected for the contract, not even the Attorney General, the Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu or the GACL knew how the curious company with no prior track record got the deal.
