Fraud pops up in BNI Asabee probe

Reports reaching The Enquirer indicate that attempts by some officials to cover-up for what is emerging as a questionable procedure in the award of an ¢860million contract to Plexiform Ventures, owned by a sister-in-law of then Information Minister, Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, has been exposed.

Enquirer sources within the state investigative body, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), have revealed that a purported minutes of a Tender Committee Meeting that awarded the said contract is turning out to be a forgery.

According the emerging details, Mr. Frank Agyekum, the then Deputy Information Minister, who is captured in the minutes to have chaired the said meeting, has denied ever participating in any such meeting, when he appeared before the BNI and quizzed over the contract awarded to Plexiform Ventures, a company owned by the ex-minister's sister-in-law, Irene Lorwia Zakpa.

A Managing Director of the company, Jasmin Dumoa, was before the BNI last Tuesday, where she was questioned overnight.

The Enquirer has learnt that the BNI had last week interrogated also, officials at the Ministry of Information, including the Chief Director and Accountant, over the said contract, which was for the refurbishment of Asamoah-Boateng's office.

The contract sum of 860million cedis, though exceeded the 500-million cedi threshold allowed the ministry to use its internal tender committee to handle, did not even go through the ministry's local internal tender committee.

Asamoah-Boateng's wife, Zuleika also appeared before the BNI last week for questioning, after she had clashed with agents of the bureau last Sunday

PLEXIFORM ROSA VENTURES

The Enquirer can report that the beneficiary of the ¢860-mil1ion Ministry of Information contract, Plexiform Ventures, is a sole proprietorship (one-man business), registered as Plexiforn1 Rosa Ventures on l0th December, 2001 and issued with Certificate of Registration number: BN-31,503C.

The business which has an Unnumbered House Tantra Hill, New Achimota, as its principal place of business, initial1y has as its general nature of business the following: General Trading, Manufacturers Representative and Agent, Interior Decoration, Landscaping, Import and Export.

On March 11, 2005, however, Irene Lorwia amended the nature of business of the company, to include: (a) MEDIA PRODUCTION, and (b) EVENT MANAGEMENT.

BEVERLY HILLS CONSPIRACY

When top journalists, pseudo journalists and politicians of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).met at Beverly Hills Hotel at Asylum Down, in Accra, part of the agenda was to cause a series of agitation that they believed would make the ruling government unpopular.

The attempt by former Information Minister, Mr. Stephen Asamoah-Boateng to beat the immigration of this country, on Sunday, June 14, might well have been in fulfillment of an option that the 'Beverly Hills mafia' came up with on that fateful June 5, 2009 meeting - that some of their folks explored seeking political asylum.

At the meeting, convened by Nana Akomea, NPP Member of Parliament (MP) for Okaikoi South Constituency, the 'mafia' agreed to, among other things, highlight and sustain the scandal that was then engulfing the Youth and Sports Minister as well as causing various forms of agitation through a 'touch - one, touch all' mantra.

The meeting, which had President Kufuor's Spokesperson and former Deputy Information Minister, Mr. Frank Agyekum, former Majority Leader in Parliament, Mr. Felix Owusu-Adjepong present also had in attendance veteran journalists, including Abdul Malik Kweku Baako, Editor-in-Chief of The New Crusading Guide, Mr. Ebo Quansah, former Editor of the defunct Evening News newspaper.

The others were, Mrs. Gina Blay, Managing Editor of the Daily Guide, and Madam Frances Essiam, Managing Editor of the Patriot newspaper, who has identified herself with three political parties over the last three years.

Mr. Asamoah-Boateng, who was part of the Beverly Hills meeting that hatched the plot, was intercepted by Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) operatives at the Kotoka International Airport on the night of Sunday, June 14th, when he attempted to leave the country together with his wife, Zuleika Lorwia and his two children, on a 'holiday' trip.