No one erred in drillship sale – Kan Dapaah, K.T

Former Energy Minister, Albert Kan-Dapaah, has told the Judgment Debt Commission that all decisions taken in connection with the sale of a drillship in 2001 were right.

“I am convinced, as I sit here that there was not one single wrong decision that was made in the whole exercise; not by anyone and I stand by that”, Kan-Dapaah insisted to Sole Commissioner Justice Apau.

He said all decisions taken in the transaction were based on the advice of the Attorney General and Justice Minister at the time, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

When pressed further by Justice Apau as to whether he thought the former AG - who gave the power of Attorney for the sale of the drillship - should be held accountable for any wrongs that may be detected in connection with the transaction, Kan-Dapaah said: “I am not saying that; I’m saying that I’m the wrong person to ask. If in your opinion, it is then the AG who should be asked, so be it”.

The Discoverer 511 of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) was sold in 2001 for US$24m.

US$19.5m of the proceeds were used to defray an alleged judgment debt awarded French Bank Societe Generale against the GNPC.

Kan-Dapaah explained to the Commission Monday that US$900,000 of the total proceeds were deposited into an escrow account to pay some suppliers and creditors of the GNPC while another US$100,000 was used to pay legal fees to some Lawyers.

US$3.5Million of the proceeds have still not been accounted for.

The former Energy Minister, however, explained that the alleged missing money was paid into an account of the Government of Ghana at the Ghana International Bank in London.

He said he was not privy to whatever happened to the money afterwards since he was neither the Finance Minister nor the Accountant General at the time.

Kan-Dapaah’s Deputy at the time, K. T Hammond also appeared at the Commission right afterwards and was in good company with his former boss.

According to him, the “sale was transparently done, scrupulously done and there was nothing wrong that happened”.