Fraud charges at diamond house

The Precious Minerals Marketing Company (PMMC) is again at the centre of charges of fraud and illegal dealings. The man allegedly perpetrating the fraud on the PMMC is the Acting Managing Director, Peter Boachie.

He is alleged to have listed company vehicles, in very good condition, for auction and then sold the vehicles to himself and his Director of Operations, George Asante. The vehicles in question are two Mitsubishi Saloon cars. Boachie is said to be so obsessed with the zeal fro perpetuating vice, that he gets rid of anyone who stands on his way.

One D.Y. Kumasi, a former Director of finance had his appointment terminated, because he tried to block a move to contract some foreign loans from Switzerland. The appointment of Messrs Nyamful and Abbey were also terminated in like manner. Another management member, George Asante, the Director of Operations is said to have between 1989 and 1992 ?deliberately over valued some parcels of diamonds? to a friend of his.

The PMMC had to sell the diamonds at a loss, only for Asante and his friend to enjoy the largess that accrued out of the deal. Out of the proceeds of this deal, Asante is said to have ?purchased his present accommodation at Dansoman and paid cash for it.?

Among the series of allegations against the management of PMMC headed by Peter Boachie is that it has without approval from the sector Ministry, approved a salary increase of 80 per cent across the board for all categories of workers. This according to our source is ?in spite of the fact that the company is heavily indebted to the banks and finding it difficult to repay.?

The Acting MD is specifically accused of taking unauthorised loans from the company?s cashier. ?He does this by issuing the cashier with his personal cheques. Most at times when these cheques are presented to the banks, they are returned for lack of funds.? Management is also accused of granting loans, totaling ?100 million to the senior metallurgist and the Chief Internal Auditor to purchase houses from the Home Finance Company.

Management of PMMC however, denies all the charges. ?Rather than running this place down, management have made $10 million for the state in the first quarter of this year alone,? they contend.

On allegation that they sold cars to themselves, the Acting MD showed the Statesman a copy of a letter from the castle, signed by the Honourable Moctar M. Bamba, Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs authorising the auction of those cars. The Acting MD also showed the Statesman a copy of the valuation from the authorised the sale of those cars at the prices that they bought them.

Regarding the dismissal of Messrs Kumasi, Nyamful and Abbey, the Acting Director submitted that they were dismissed based on wrongful acts. Abbey for example was dismissed because he had illegally granted loans to people who did not deserve them. He could however, not remember the charges preferred against the two other gentlemen.

George Asante, the Director of Operations, on his part denied ever under valuing or over valuing diamonds. According to him, he did not purchase his present accommodation or Dansoman as is alleged. Rather it is renter. He however, said that it is being paid for by loans from the welfare fund, which gets deducted from his salary. Besides, every other worker has access to that facility.

Regarding the increase in salaries, the Acting MD said it is a normal practice for salaries to be reviewed based on negotiations with the Mine Workers Union. He added that salaries at PMMC are still the lowest compared with other mineral companies. The Acting MD further denied ever issuing any dud cheques to the company in lieu of loans collected.

On the allegation of purchasing homes for two officers, he explained that the two officers took loans from the company to buy houses from HFC on mortgage. In time however, the interest that these officers were paying to HFC far outstripped their salaries. To bail them out, the company decided to buy the houses, and then rent to the officers in question. The houses therefore belong to PMMC now and the officers, tenants. If in time however, they finish paying the cost of the houses to PMMC then ownership reverts to them.