SFO To Probe Rawlings

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) will soon institute a probe into the Buick Riveira Coupe Saloon car gift saga which The Crusading Guide newspaper published in its February 21-27 edition. The thrust of the SFO’s probe will be directed at the possibility of abuse of office for personal profit involving the car gift. In the story it was stated that Masai Motors Limited, with Mr. Eddie Annan as Chief Executive, gave the car to ex-President Rawlings as a gift. Eddie Annan had maintained that the vehicle was given to the former First Lady, Mrs. Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings. He had earlier told Kwaku Sakyi Addo on Joy FM’s popular FRONTPAGE programme that he had given two cars to Mrs. Rawlings and Mrs. Sati Ocran.

When contacted for his comments to the publication, Mr. Annan insisted that the only person in the entire Rawlings’ family to whom he had given a car gift was Mrs. Rawlings. However, it was later revealed that ownership of the car was transferred from Masai Motors Limited to that of Mr. J. J. Rawlings on December 30, 1997. The gift, our investigations have revealed, had a direct link with the dubious City and Country Waste Limited (CCWL), Groupe Chagnon International and Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) contract, which the SFO is currently investigating.

The SFO is investigating a case of financial loss of about $8 million to the state in the course of the contract between the three companies. Our SFO source intimated that in the course of the investigations, it became clear that Masai Developers Limited of Accra, also owned by Mr. Eddie Annan was the agent of the Canadian Company – Groupe Chagnon, which supplied the equipment. Masai was also the agent of Navi Star International Corporation of Chicago in the USA, which supplied the part of equipment delivered by Chagnon. At the end of the delivery of the equipment, our sources hinted, a Buick Riviera Coupe Saloon car was delivered to Masai Limited from Canada.

The company later transferred this vehicle to Mr. J. J. Rawlings of P.O. Box 45, Accra –Ghana and the transfer was subsequently registered at the Vehicle Licensing Division in Accra. The Crusading Guide further gathered that another vehicle, a Jeep Cherokee Laredo was delivered from Canada to Masai and was transferred to Mrs. Sati Ocran, leading member of the 31st December Women’s Movement and wife of Mr. Lee Ocran, former Minister of Environment.

Investigations have revealed that those vehicles have been bought by Courey International in Canada and shipped to Masai. Courey International is a procurement agent of the Canadian Government for projects sponsored by the Canadian Government in Ghana. Further probings showed that Courey is also represented in Ghana by Masai Developers Limited. “There is therefore a case that the donations of these cars to the former President and Mrs. Ocran were in relation to the Chagnon contract”, the source disclosed.

According to him, “that case is strengthened by the fact that the former Chief Executive of the AMA, Mr. Nunoo Amarteifio, told the SFO during investigations that he was prevailed upon and forced by the former President to sign the AMA-Chagnon contract, despite the opposition from the whole of AMA and his technical advisers that the agreement was bad for AMA and for Ghana”. He continued, “as a matter of fact, the agreement was unworkable and the whole project collapsed within a year of its operation”.