The Minority in Parliament says the house was sidelined in the outsourcing of property rate collection deal by the government to a private entity.
The Chamber for Local Governance has petitioned the Office of the Special Prosecutor to institute a probe into what it deems as the illegality and corruption surrounding the collection and retention of government funds in the private accounts of Digital City Solutions.
Speaking to Citi News, the Ranking Member on the Local Government Committee of Parliament, Nii Lante Vanderpuye, said details of such a transaction have not been provided to Parliament for approval.
“The law, as it was structured at that time, does not permit any other agency apart from the local government institutions to collect property rates. For you to decide that an entity, a private entity will be collecting the rate on behalf of the government, an amendment of the law is needed.”
“We were bypassed. And because they saw that we were not ready to budge, they used the backdoor and got the individual assemblies to sign the MoU with the GRA and the private collectors. Even then, we took issue with the GRA because the mandate of the GRA doesn’t extend to the collection of property rates,” he said.