Rock City Hotel winning bid is suspicious

Edem Senanu, Co-Chair of the Citizens Movement Against Corruption, has posited that Rock City Hotel owned by Bryan Acheampong was not supposed to even make attempts to buy the SSNIT hotels. He said, looking at the position of Bryan Acheampong in government, even if the deal was fair it would still raise suspicion.

“From a purely ethical perspective, once you find that there is a problem, it has to be raised especially where they said it appears that Rock City is the one that has won the bid, they say it is the best proposal,” Edem Senanu.

According to Senanu, Bryan Acheampong being a director of Rock City Hotel and also a prominent government official made it inappropriate. He added that his involvement alone was bound to raise questions even if Rock City Hotel did not win the bid to buy the hotels.

“Immediately it raises red flags because then the owner on paper is somebody who is in government that automatically comes into a conflict of interest situation.”

Edem Senanu said many people would ask questions of whether the Rock City Hotel had favours due to the influence of Bryan Acheampong in government or not. He added that the constitution forbids it, so there was no need to attempt it.

“The question, are you sure he did not have an undue advantage in terms of information that then fed into the proposal that was submitted so strictly speaking based on the constitutional provisions, he should have been shortlisted.”

Senanu added that if Bryan Acheampong needed the hotel so badly then he was not supposed to be involved as a director of Rock City Hotel. According to him, that would allow the parties to work independently without the influence of a government appointee breathing down on them.

“Ideally, even if he wanted to, he should have been conscious of the conflict of interest rules and diverted himself off it. Allow the entity to submit this bill without his name on it at Registrar General or elsewhere,” he said on Joy FM’s Pulse on May 22.