Scandal Rocks President's Office - Part IV: Visa Scam!

The Deputy Minister for Presidential Affairs at the Office of the President, Hon. Moctar Musah Bamba and the Austria branch of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) as well as junior employees at the Office of the President are involved in a junk-bond visa scam which has further exposed an incredible abuse of office at Ghana’s Presidency. The squad from the Office of the President who are involved in the deal include, Hon. Moctar Musa Bamba, a man identified by the Minister only as “Philip” and the then Special Assistant to the Hon. Bamba Alhaji Adam Achansu who is now District Chief Executive for Bole.

The scandal began with a three-paragraph letter of invitation from one Alhaji Baba Moro-National Chairman and organizer of the NPP branch in Austria and Lawrence Addison-General Secretary of the party in Austria. Both officers are very connected to Hon. Bamba.

According to evidence obtained from EU intelligence sources, the letter of invitation which was dated September 20, 2002, was addressed to Hon. Bamba, to lead a six-member party and government delegation to attend the inauguration of the Austria branch of the NPP which was scheduled for September 27-30, 2002.

Further investigations at the Presidency revealed that a month after the invitation was written and faxed from the party’s Austria headquarters in Graz, a letter in the name of the Hon. Bamba, which spotted an entirely different signature from the Minister’s known signature specimens, was written to the Austrian Consulate asking for visa for seven people including “Richard Oppong Kwabena, Kofi Peprah, Amanfo Yaw Ofori, Mrs. Josephine Detabea Baidoo, Samuel Oppong” and “Bernard Afful.”

This letter, which was written on the personal letterhead of Hon. Bamba in his capacity as an NPP Member of Parliament (MP) also spotted the official postal address, telephone and fax numbers of the Office of the President.

In spite of the fact that the signature on the document was different from the Minister’s signature, The Chronicle investigations revealed that he had made several telephone calls to the Consulate and had personally followed up on the letter purportedly signed by him.

According to EU intelligence sources, by the time the visa was granted another set of six which was different from the Minister’s list had been submitted to the Consulate from somebody else from the Office of the President stating that they were supposed to travel with the Minister to attend the inaugural ceremony as per the letter of invitation sent to the Minister from Austria

The new list included “Ernest Yaw Fenning, Franklin Danso Appau, Kweku Annor, Nora Otoo Joyceline Osei” and “Emmanuel Antiaye Addy.”

Acting on the new list, The Chronicle gathered that the Austrian Consulate forwarded it to their embassy in Abidjan who later issued the visas to the members of the new list.

The Chronicle gathered from one of the applicants whose name was included in the first list but was later dropped that all the applicants initially used Office of the President address but the Austrian Consulate allegedly said that all of them could not use the address of the Office of the President especially when they had all given different places of work.

The most suspicious of the visa applicants were Joyceline Osei and one Ernest Fenning. According to photocopies of Joyceline Osei’s visa forms which was carelessly dumped at the Office of the President, she stated that she was a private Secretary to Hon. Moctar Bamba. But the Minister told Chronicle that he does not know her.

As the head of delegation, The Chronicle learnt from intelligence sources that Hon. Bamba personally drove to the Austrian Consulate in Accra to receive the visas after they were issued.

Soon after the visas were issued a strange letter dated October 10, 2002 and signed by Alhaji Adam Achansu, was faxed to Graz-the headquarters of the NPP branch in Austria from AGROTROPICS in Ghana, a company listed on visa forms obtained at the Castle as the workplace of one of the visa applicants.

A copy of the letter exclusively obtained last September by The Chronicle while in Graz-Austria for undercover investigations on the matter revealed that Alhaji Achansu had lied to the Austrian NPP branch in the name of the President saying the Minister, Hon. Moctar Bamba, who had gone for the visas could not travel because President Kufuor had traveled to Japan and the Deputy Minister could not travel without the permission of the President.

The letter said: “Since September the deputy Minister was assigned some official duties which coincide with your given dates of the inauguration, it was impossible for the visit (to) take due this circumstances. Currently the President has traveled to Japan and the Deputy Minister can’t travel without permission and presence of the President in the country”- The grammar errors are his.

As soon as the letter was sent, the Minister quickly released the visas to the people who bolted to Europe.

But in an interview with The Chronicle, the Minister said that the reason why he did not attend the supposed inaugural ceremony was not because the President had traveled out of the country nor because he didn’t have the President’s permission but it was because a “guy” in the Office of the President called “Phillip” (The Minister said he could not recollect his full name) had changed all the names he submitted to the Consulate and replaced it with his own names.

“I did not go because there is a guy here called Philip, he has traveled, he changed the list I gave to them and replaced it with his so I got angry and decided not to go.”

When questioned about what he did with the visas after he detected this anomaly, the Minister said, he held onto the visas until the day they were supposed to expire when he released them. This claim Chronicle found to be false because evidence later revealed the young people who were supposed to attend the inaugural ceremony left Ghana long before the date the Minister claims he released the passports.

According to the Minister, if there is anybody to be blamed, it has to be Philip and his personal assistant and that he (the Minister) was short-changed by these officers at the President’s office.

Meanwhile, EU intelligence sources told The Chronicle that there is a man-hunt for the escapees who they said are believed to be in central or middle Europe.

When the Austrian Consulate was contacted late last year they declined comment on the matter. By Press time yesterday, The Chronicle gathered that the Honorary Consul was on vacation and was expected any moment soon.

After this scandal broke in 2002, The Chronicle confirmed that Hon. Bamba attempted to obtain visas for another squad of 19 young people saying that they were going on a business trip to Austria.

Some of the supposed businessmen included 19-year olds who claimed they were self-employed. The Chronicle has evidence from a EU data pool that the Minister wrote a letter using the letterheads of the President to facilitate the acquisition of the visas.

The Minister and his business delegation according to evidence in The Chronicle’s possession and from confirmations in Graz were refused entry visas for such a phony trip.

THE VISA RING

Meanwhile The Chronicle on-site investigations in Graz-Austria and Ghana have revealed that the visa scandal which has rocked the presidency is part of a visa ring coordinated by the General Secretary of NPP branch in Austria, Lawrence Addison and certain ministers of state.

It is important to know that Lawrence Addison is a co-author of the letters of invitation to Hon. Bamaba.

Sources who spoke to The Chronicle in Graz last September said that Addison has a job as the translator for the Austrian Ministry of Interior.