AG's Assistant Quits Over $20,000 Scandal?

The Special Assistant to the Attorney General, Nana Addo Danquah Akuffo Addo has quit her job under circumstances that leave several questions unanswered. Mrs Ursula Owusu Agyei, the first of several Special Assistants at the beck and call of Ministers to resign in this government, did not assign reasons for her rather strange decision even though close friends and sources at the Attorney General’s department have hinted the National Concord newspaper that it was due to incessant pressure from “powerful forces”.

Another reason for this inexplicable turn of events could also be the discovery that while serving as a Special Assistant, she also served as a consultant at the same Ministry, drawing $2000 (?16 million) in monthly consultancy fees. Investigations revealed that while ensconced at the Justice Ministry as special aide to Nana Akuffo Addo, Mrs Owusu Agyei signed a contract under the on-going World Bank sponsored Legal Sector Reform programme as a consultant to the Ministry of Justice and was being paid ?2,000 in addition to other perks that accompanied her job.

The consultancy agreement, part of an “omnibus” contract, which originated from the World Bank Office and the Ministry of Finance was signed by the Chief Director of the Ministry, C.S. Sackey. The contract is meant to strengthen the capacities of the Judicial Service, Ghana Law School and the Law faculty, among other establishments. Even though she has quit her job, she is often spotted driving her official Ssanyong four-wheel drive, which she parks at the Controller and Accountant General’s department.

In an interview with the Concord, Sackey acknowledged signing some contracts under the Legal Sector Reform Programme but said he was limited to just that - appending his signature. Asked whether he knew about the consultancy contract between the Ministry of Justice and Mrs Owusu Agyei, he said “It could be that we have such an agreement with her but as I said, I wouldn’t know because my job is limited to signing contracts that are brought to me. After this is done, my job ends”. The Concord could not establish what line of action might be taken against Mrs Owusu Agyei at the time of going to press.