Abodakpi & Agbodo to be prosecuted

(Weekend Agenda) -- Former Trade Minister Dan Abodakpi and his co-National Democratic Congress stalwart, Emmanuel Agbodo, the former Chief Executive of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), are not sitting too pretty. They may be the next line of former officials of the Rawlings administration, to answer for some of their actions in court for causing the nation the loss of about ?17 billion.

A forensic audit report into the dealings of the DIC, gleaned by Weekend Agenda, has recommended that Agbodo and Abodakpi should be made to refund the sum of ?2.8 billion and prosecuted for transfer of that sum of money to Goldshield Contact Services Ltd, for no services provided.

That is not the only likely suit hanging on the neck of the former Chief Executive of the DIC. The audit report has also recommended that Agbodo and his associate, S. Sedziafa, Public Relation Officer of DIC and their accomplices, a London-based firm owned by Nigerian journalist, Everest Ekong, should be prosecuted for exceeding payment for the company’s services to the tune of ?12 billion for advertisement carried by Business in Africa Magazine published by the company.

The authors of the forensic report also recommended that an amount of ?2.6 billion should be surcharged to Agbodo for the release of excessive sums to the tune of that amount for the Pan African Investment Summit in Accra, without the approval of the Board of the Divestiture Implementation Committee.

The Board Members of the DIC were not left out in the forensic audit report. The audit recommended that Board members at the time should refund seven months (?120 million) of allowances they received. The report said Board members were paid 12 months sitting allowances though there were only three sittings in the year.

This is not the first time Emmanuel Agbodo and the DIC have been the subject of controversy. On the eve of the transition of January 7, 2001, Agbodo was accused of picking up a brand-new Benz for a pittance as his end-of-service benefit (ESB).

The Ghana Film Industry Corporation (GFIC) was also a casualty of the DIC. There were wide differences between the price tag the new owners put on the property and what the NDC government actually sold the company. Also, the then government refused to consider any offers even if the bidders promised better deals.

Barely a year after the state sold GFIC for $1.3 million, the new owners reportedly repackaged the 14 cinema houses formerly owned by the state and allegedly sold them for $14 million.

The Black Star Line (BSL) was another casualty of the dealings of Agbodo and his DIC. The core assets of the shipping line were sold out piecemeal either by the DIC or in conjunction with BSL management for a pittance leaving questions about the quantum and whereabouts of the proceeds.

“We have been forced to sell the property in bits and pieces which is not the normal way of disposing of properties of companies to be divested,” Thomas Benson Owusu of Pernell Kerr Foster, consultants commissioned to make an inventory of the company’s assets scattered around the world and give a picture of its true position, wrote to the Ministry of Roads and Transport then. Other casualties of the DIC include the Tema Steel Company, Sabat Motors and the Ghana National Trading Corporation (GNTC).