Tony Lithur deserves GH¢300,000 paid him by UPSA; Alabi responds to Auditor -General

Professor Joshua Alabi

Former Vice Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Professor Joshua Alabi, has said that private legal firm, Lithur Brew and Company, deserved an amount of GH¢300,000 paid to it by the University during his tenure as Vice-Chancellor.

The Auditor-General, in its latest report, directed Prof Alabi to refund with interest an amount of almost GH¢300,000.00 paid as legal fees to private legal firm Lithur Brew and Company for no work done.

The Report said the Management of UPSA signed a retainer agreement dated March 16, 2014, and paid an amount of GH¢263,670 to law firm Lithur Brew and Company as a retainer fee but there is no evidence of the provision of any legal service to the University.

The report also noted that Lithur Brew and Company was appointed through sole-sourcing without recourse to the provisions of the Public Procurement (Amendment) Act, 2016 (Act 914).

But responding to this in a holding statement on his Facebook page, the one-time flagbearer aspirant said that the Law Firm Lithur Brew and Company did a lot of work for the school and that it deserved the amount of money they were paid.

He said he was not contacted by the Auditor-General before it put the report together citing malicious intent.

His holding statement said: “Tonny Lither did a lot of work for UPSA including court appearances. He was also on a retainer where at any point in time we call him for legal advice. Interestingly, they never call on me or Tonny for any clarification. They are in a hurry to find faults even where there is none. We shall respond.”