Ex-Minister's Unpaid Hotel Bill

It has emerged that when ex-Information Minister Stephen Asamoah-Boateng was asking Ghanaians who were complaining of economic hardship to eat ‘Konkonte’ he was rollicking in luxury at a beach resort where his menu cost over ¢27 million.

The management of Elmina Beach Resort is now at the throat of the ex-Minister to settle the ¢27 million bills he incurred during his private escapades at the hotel, which has been outstanding since 2003.

The breakdown of the bill included accommodation, drinks, of which Guinness appeared many times, Khebabs and telephone calls. The former Minister of Information, The Enquirer gathered from reliable sources within the management of the hotel, simply refused to honour his side of the bargain, in all attempts to get him settle the bill since 2004.

As per the regulations of Golden Beach Hotels, owners of Elmina Beach Resort, Mr Asamoah-Boateng will pay interest of 5.5 per cent on the bill because he failed to settle it within 14 days.

The Enquirer’s sources have it that Asa Bee, as he is fondly called, initially told them the Central Region Coordinating Council (CRCC) would settle the bill.

However, when the CRCC was contacted by the hotel, it came out that the former Information Minister’s activities at the hotel were his personal ones and nothing official. Armed with the new development from the CRCC, the Elmina Beach Resort prepared a fresh invoice on May 6, 2005 and sent it to Mr Asamoah-Boateng.

The fore Minister did not respond to what they sent and efforts to get him to settle the bill have fallen on deaf ears. When The Enquirer contacted Mr Asamoah-Boateng last Saturday via phone, he acknowledged that indeed there is a bill to settle at the hotel. “The CRCC, I know, is to settle that bill but all the same I will do some checks with management of the hotel, I don’t think this is anything that is news,” he said.

Mr Asamoah-Boateng said that CRCC will even attest to the fact that the bill must be settled by that outfit. But a source at the CRCC told The Enquirer that the period Mr Asamoah Boateng had that bill was when he was campaigning for the Mfantseman West seat.

The source said that the CRCC was always notified of the visit of all government officials in order that proper arrangements could be made, but with Mr Asamoah-Boateng, that was not the case.

According to the source, if the former minister was indeed performing an official assignment, the CRCC would have been aware of it at the time.

“He knows how things are done in connection with their visits to the region and must therefore not use us as a decoy to escape payment of the bill,” the source said.