Abodakpi, Selormey in a 2.7 billion fake contract

The collision between the two former Ministers of State, Dan Abodakpi MP and Victor Selormey in transferring huge sums of money to their “partner”, Dr. Owusu Buadu in Texas USA for what has been described as “highly suspicious” contracts appears to have no ending.

Another “dubious” contract that stands the likelihood of prosecution is the transfer of 400,000 US dollars or 2.73 billion to Owusu Buadu by the two former Ministers for the establishment of what was described as a Science and Technology Park/Valley, similar to the Silicon Vally in the USA.

“Evening News” investigations chanced upon documents currently circulating within government circles in which Abodakpi and Selormey diverted project funds meant for on lending to non-traditional exporting companies to pay for consultancy services.

Ironically, the services they purported to pay for had been already provided for, under the Gateway Project of the Ministry of Trade and Industry. Investigations also indicate that the Gateway Secretariat had no knowledge of the contracting project nor was it privy to any report on it.

The document according to the paper states unambiguously that the Ministry “must have paid for a proposal instead of a feasibility study because of the nature of the output.”

“Proposals from consultants to clients are normally never paid for. The transfer to the consultant was not made in furthering the objective of the Trade and Investment Programme.”

A special investigations team that is currently auditing both financial and management acts of malfeasance committed in the past regime concluded that the use of the project funds for consultancy services constitutes misprocurement. “It is clearly evident that the contract submitted is tainted with fraud as it was not witnessed by the legal officers at the Trade Ministry or the Attorney General’s Department for a contract of this magnitude.

What probably raised eyebrows about the contract were that the payment in four separate transfers was effected very close to 2000 elections.

The amount was transferred on authorization by Mr. Selormey who is also standing trial for a 1.5 million dollar court computerization project, to Dr. Fred Buadu’s local bank account number 1101015760111, through ECOBANK Ghana Limited on October 18, November 3, December 15 and December 29, 2000.

The transfers of 250 million cedis, 300 million cedis, 115.6 million cedis and 2,066 million had no official correspondence whatsoever between Dr. Buadu and either the Ministry of Finance or Ministry of Trade and Industry.

According to the report, both Abodakpi and the Consultant signed what was purported to be a contract, but there was no witness to the contract. Also, the contract document was not initiated page by page as required.

It lacked the details information required in a feasibility study, such as market analysis to determine the financial viability of the science and technology community project and risk analysis of the project.

Among the conclusions by the team was the highly irregular use of Texas and A and M University letterhead to bill for US $300,000 when the University was not a party to the contract.

It was also noted that although under the Ghana Income Tax law, every person who is responsible for paying money to any person for services provided or similar payment shall deduct tax at the rate of five per cent from such payment and pay the amount deducted forthwith to the Commissioner of IRS, the full contract sum was transferred to Buadu’s Account in ECOBANK without deducting the five per cent withholding tax.

Section 1 sub-section 2 of the Income Tax Decree 1975 S.M.C.D.S stipulates that tax shall be payable upon the income of any person accruing in, derived from, brought into or received in Ghana in respect of gains or profits from any trade, business profession or vocation for whatever period of time such trade business, profession or vacation may have been carried on or exercised.
Dr. Owusu Buadu, it was learnt has not paid income tax on the income accrued in or derived from Ghana.