SFO Exposed: OBOTAN, TMA Reports Are With AG

Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Paapa Owusu Ankomah, has admitted that he has received dockets from the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) on its investigations into the $2 million OBOTAN deal and the over ?2 billion TMA scandal.

His admission runs counter to the recent suggestive denial by the SFO in its widely-publicised press statement that sought to cast doubts on the existence of reports on the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA) and OBOTAN three weeks ago.

The SFO said in that statement that it has not issued any report whatsoever and that newspapers publishing such reports should prove the authenticity of those documents. The SFO also indicted the weight of its own investigations by suggesting that the media should not have enough faith in its reports because the findings are its own perception of facts under investigation.

But speaking to Peace FM’s morning show host, Kwame Sefa Kayi, on Tuesday, July 15, the Attorney-General acknowledged that his office has received both the OBOTAN and TMA reports.

He did not say the same of the equally controversial report on Regional Integration and NEPAD Minister, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku and Ghana Free Zones Board case.

“… Sometimes I read in the papers that dockets have been brought to the office. Unfortunately I make enquiries and the dockets have not come. But I can confirm, because the public has the right to know, that the OBOTAN report is in the office. That of the Tema Municipal Assembly was received by my office last Thursday [July 10, 2003]”.

Both OBOTAN and TMA reports, Gye Nyame Concord can reveal, were taken to the AG’s office after recent media reports led by this paper despite credible evidence that investigations on the two cases were concluded last year, with final reports ready months ago.

The OBOTAN case was quickly dusted-up and shoved to the AG’s office by the SFO this year, after forays of media reports in your authoritative Gye Nyame Concord and the Crusading Guide, as well as serious discussions on a number of broadcast TV and radio stations led by Metro TV.

That of the TMA also went to the AG’s office after this paper kick-started a chain of publications on the report last month, almost a year after the SFO had strongly denied the existence of a report after a Ghana News Agency report on the case was shut down with an apology from the management of the state-owned news agency. (read more on this next week)

Owusu-Ankomah would not, however, comment on whether he was satisfied with the work of the SFO, saying he is limited on what views he can publicly express on the SFO.

He was not however satisfied with media commentaries on the work of investigative organs such as the SFO.

According to him, though the investigative institutions are not sacred and the public has the right to know, the media must separate allegations from facts.

He also urged that conclusions must not be made by the media on the basis of the allegations.

He said media commentaries sometimes hem-in the investigative agencies and prevent an objective assessment of their findings.

According to him, he has directed the SFO to avail his office of any report of its findings on any case.

The SFO has powers to investigate matters involving suspected offences provided for by law which appears to the Director on reasonable grounds to involve serious financial loss or economic loss to the State or to any State organisation or other institution in which the State has an interest.