Shady deals at Ghana Telecom - Herbert Mensah accused

The NPP government’s policy of zero tolerance for corruption, if allegations emanating from the financial department of the beleaguered Ghana Telecom is to be believed, has claimed another victim.

This time in the person of Herbert Mensah, the soon-to-depart Chief Executive of Kumasi Asante Kotoko Football Club and former director of Ghana Telecom (GT). Herbert is alleged to have aided a friend, Kennedy Agyepong, to secure contracts from the Telecom giant and deny GT a refund of almost a billion cedis from Agyepong’s company as a result of a shady overpayment for services rendered.

Another allegation, which seriously casts aspersions of serious conflict of interest described the former director as breaching his fiduciary duty to GT by negotiating a deal with a South African company that GT was to gain from.

But, the man at the centre of the allegation, Herbert Mensah has responded to the allegations as “incredulous.” He is of the strong opinion that it is the work of aggrieved persons who stand to lose from the unprecedented inquest undertaking by the Directors, under the chairmanship of Prof. S.K.B. Asante, to uncover hundreds of billions of cedis fraud in Ghana Telecom between the local operators and the Malaysians. Indeed, investigations are currently underway on a possible ?500 billion fraud.

Herbert Mensah, who resigned as director of Ghana Telecom last month reduces the allegations against him as to nothing but a dubious attempt of the “I destroy you before you destroy me” syndrome prevalent in our society.

He confirmed that under S.K.B. Asante, who resigned on Thursday, the Board of Ghana Telecom had managed to recover $8 million that would have been lost forever to corrupt practices. He pointed out that the Director of Finance, Mr Boakye and the Malaysian Managing Director of Ghana Telecom had conspired to illegally deprive the company of ?66 billion, which, “Standard Chartered Bank, has admitted.

The Statesman learnt that Agyepong’s company, Kenpong Contracts Works, was engaged as a subcontractor under Seoul Commtech of South Korea, owners of Samsung in the ongoing Ghana Telecom expansion work.

Messrs Kenpong Contract Works was, however, overpaid to the tune of $135,437.39 (?900,664,000) and was subsequently asked to refund the excess money to Ghana Telecom, which the company agreed in a gentleman’s agreement with Samsung.

However, after the mutual agreement, in a rather bizarre twist, Herbert Mensah is alleged to have coaxed the Managing Director of Ghana Telecom, Dato Abdul Malek Mohammed to refund the money to Agyepong’s company, but Herbert laughs this off as ridicule.

He describes Agyepong not as a friend he “socializes” with beyond the mutual Kotoko ties. He also said he had never heard of the $135,000 before Thursday. He was also accused of unilaterally re-negotiating a deal the Ghana Telecom entered with Adriam Love, a South African Telecom company for inter-connectivity transaction to the disadvantage of in the original agreement. Ghana Telecom was to be paid 9.0 cent for every one-minute call made through GT’s network.

But Herbert Mensah is alleged to have used his influence to re-negotiate the deal bringing it down to 4.5 cents, which was a 50 per cent loss to the state. Ghana government has 70 per cent shares in Ghana Telecom.

Herbert Mensah, who until recently was chairman of Ghana Telecom Board’s Sub-Committee for Tender and Procurement says of the money overpaid to Agyepong: “That must have been first authorized by someone and there must be a paper trail leading to the source.”

This implied that, perhaps, someone might have authorized that to deprive GT of the amount but was forced to call for a refund after the cover was blown. On the deal with Adriam Love, Herbert said that it was the Minister of Communications, Felix Agyepong, who brought them in from South Africa. “I was not then at Ghana Telecom and was therefore not part of the original negotiations team.”

He revealed that certain locally-based companies were illegally making money that was suppose to go to GT. The South African company’s involvement was to bring revenue to Ghana, which never before existed. He explained the negotiations and the technicalities of the transaction as complex and was prepared to explain matters further to the Statesman on a later date.

Herbert Mensah has described the allegations, which has been levelled against him from a top official in Ghana Telecom as “So incredulous.” When contacted on Thursday night, he said: “In this era of zero tolerance the government will prosecute anyone, including myself, if such is the case.”

He went on to explain that, “no director of Ghana Telecom can walk into Ghana Telecom and ask for things to be done.” As it is the normal practice, non-executive directors are not supposed to play any role in the day-to-day running of a company.

The contrasting stories from official source in Ghana Telecom and that from the former director pitch Herbert Mensah directly against the Chief Financial Officer. As admitted by Herbert Mensah, “the truth is in there somewhere.”

The Statesman is, in public interest, going ahead to pursue this investigation. Prof S.K.B. Asante who resigned this week is traveling back to the US to spend more time with his family.

Herbert Mensah is also returning to the United Kingdom where his telephony company is based. Whiles looking forward to Kotoko’s trip to Angola, among others, he, however, intimated to the Statesman that the time has come for him to resign from the board and spend more time with his business and family. - The Statesman