GAFCO, Finance meet over missing $11m loan

Chronicle says it's investigations about the divestiture of Tema Food Complex Corporation (TFCC) has revealed that as at December 31, 2000, the government of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) could not account for $10.9million loan that OPEC and BADEA had approved for the rehabilitation of the Complex.

Even though officials at the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) insist the money was transferred to the company, Ghana Agro-Food Company Ltd. (GAFCO), after the divestiture of TFCC, Mr Hans-Dieter Baehr, chairman of GAFCO board of directors, told the paper in a follow-up interview that he did not receive anything from the MOF when GAFCO won the bid to buy TFCC.

He said whenever the issue of the loan package was raised with the then Minister of Finance, Mr Kwame Peprah, all he kept saying was that he should be given time to study how the loan was managed.

According to Mr Dieter Baehr, he has called for a meeting between his company and the new Finance Minister, Mr Osafo Maafo, for this weekend, to discuss how the Ministry has utilised the loan.