Summaries of allegations of corruption in Govt

The following additional summaries of allegations of corruption are Ghana Palaver’s own research from publications in the various Ghanaian newspapers:

(1) Over ?15 Billion was spent on the rehabilitation of the Castle and ministerial bungalows, and in the process, some Ministers made hundreds of millions of cedis and others caused serious financial loss to the State;

(2)The Chief Executive of SSNIT is paid ?90 million per month and his Deputy is paid ?64 million per month, far in excess of what they deserve and apparently without the approval of the SSNIT Board of Directors;

(3)Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs Mrs. Gladys Asmah is operating a "chit for sale" kalabule system in respect of COCOBOD’s empty cocoa sacks at the Ministry;

(4)Three Executive members of the Dzorwulu Women’s Wing of the NPP were arrested for attempting to smuggle cocaine to the USA. The docket on this case is at the Cantonments Police Station, allegedly frozen upon the intervention of Mrs. Theresa Kufuor;

(5) ?735 million was spent to renovate the Odorkor residence of the late Progress Party Prime Minister of the Second Republic, Dr. K. A. Busia without Parliamentary approval;

(6) An attempt to wilfully cause financial loss to the State in the effort of the Ministers of Interior and Finance to contract a loan of US$1 Billion from a Company called ‘Trillium Finance Consortium Limited" in circumstances very similar to the now infamous US$1 Billion ‘IFC’ loan, which was only aborted when the Ghana Palaver blew the lid off the top of that scam;

(7) US$500,000 was used for the importation of bullet-proof vehicles for the Presidency under dubious, suspicious and non-transparent circumstances and apparently without Parliamentary approval;

(8)The suspicious circumstances surrounding the bringing down of the Efasu Thermal Barge from Italy to Ghana and its abandonment at the Sekondi Naval Base, putting the over US$15 million investment into serious jeopardy and causing serious financial loss to the State

(9) The circumstances under which SSNIT was forced to buy ?280 Billion of CPC shares and to extend a ‘bridging loan’ of US$6.5 million to the Government;

(10) The NPP Government’s refusal to ratify the renegotiated Valco Agreement which had cost Ghana and the VRA US$30.4 million between January 2001 and December 2002;

(11) In about June/July 2002, Sahara Energy Resources Company Limited did a crude oil swap discount deal with TOR which earned the Company an undeserved US$1.5 million or ?12 Billion in one day;

(12) Ms. Martha Nkrumah, alleged concubine of Deputy Interior Minister Thomas Broni, alleged on Radio Gold that her husband Tony Osei-Tutu, an NPP financier, was a drug dealer;

(13) Hon. Mrs Grace Coleman, NPP MP for Asokore-Effiduase, is a "Wanted" woman in the USA to face trial in connection with a case in which her daughter and her son-in-law have already been convicted, extradition papers have already been served on the NPP Government, yet the NPP Government does nothing, Mrs. Coleman walks the land a free woman, and, what is worse, attends the sittings of Ghana’s Parliament and responds to the call of ‘Honourable’;

(14) NPP activist and NADMO official Sulemana Jeremiah of the Kulungugu Bomb Trial fame duped Ms. Mariama Tula, daughter of Mallam Mama Tula, also of the Kulungugu Bomb Trial fame, of US$2,500 under the pretext of using the cover of Vice President Aliu Mahama’s official visit to the USA to procure for her a USA visa;

(15) The Executive Secretary of the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), Dr. Ken Attafuah, was paid double salary for three months by the NRC and by the CHRAJ;

(16) The circumstances surrounding the US$5 million ‘ethnic agenda’ loan from the World Bank to the Asanteman Council and the Akim Abuakwa Traditional Council;

(17) The Auditor-General Eddie Dua Agyeman, was paid ?75 million salary advance by Minister of Finance Yaw Osafo-Maafo in breach of the provisions of the FAD and the FAR, thereby compromising his independence;

(18) A certain Ms. Gizelle Yajzi, a non-Ghanaian lady of dubious background and uncertain class and status has been engaged as ‘Special Adviser’ to the Minister of Finance under very suspicious circumstances and is running up bills for the Ghana Government that threaten to cause serious financial loss to the State;

(19) Mr. Evans Ashong Narh, Tema Municipal Chief Executive, is alleged to have awarded contracts for fumigation and computerisation without going through tender and at highly inflated prices;

(20) Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Ekumfi, former Minister of Education and now Minister of Ports, Harbours and Railways, awarded contracts for the reprinting of science textbooks to his cronies for a period of five years and in excess of ?50 Billion without going through tender;

(21) Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, former Minister of Trade and Industry and now Minister for Regional Integration and NEPAD, diverted Ghana Free Zones Board property to set up a private Campaign Office to aid his bid for the NPP Presidential candidacy in 2008;

(22) Mr. Ben Owusu Mensah, Director General of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority, is involved in a US$60 million contract scandal;

(23) Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, Chief Executive of Data Bank, is involved in a US$1.244 million scandal involving the diversion of SSNIT Funds for the Obotan Project;

(24) Mr. K. Dapaah Siakwan, Deputy Managing Director of the Ghana Commercial Bank, is involved in a ?81.25 million fraudulent funds transfer to Express Funds International Limited;

(25) The Ghana Football Authority under Ben Kuofie misapplied a FIFA Development Grant of US$500,000 or ?415 Billion;

(26) Mr. Michael Yaw Boateng, Director of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI), is involved in a ?1.3 Billion office equipment payment scandal;

(27) Six containers of assorted books worth US$300,000 (undeclared cargo) slated for auction cannot be traced;

(28) The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) is involved in the illegal transfer of a colossal amount of US$3.6 million to the ailing Ghana Airways;

(29) The State Enterprises Commission is involved in a ?1.3 Trillion financial loss to the State transaction through negligence and deliberate fraud;

(30) Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, Minister of Energy, allegedly caused financial loss amounting to US$449,166.55 in the acquisition of software;

(31) Mr. Michael Yaw Boateng and Mr. Emmanuel Anini, Director and Chief Accountant respectively of the NVTI, are involved in embezzlements involving ?8 Billion, ?2.968 Billion, and ?2.967 Billion respectively;

(32) The Tema Municipal Assembly is involved in dubious purchases to the tune of ?92 million;

(33) Minister of Finance Yaw Osafo-Maafo illegally authorised the payment of US$15,000 or ?140 million as paid leave entitlement for the Speaker of Parliament, Peter Ala Adjetey to spend his disputed leave in the Republic of Ireland;

(34) President Kufuor has, since assuming the Presidency, bought a plush house at Asonomase in Kumasi for US$500,000 from its Lebanese owner;

(35) Dr. Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister for Regional Integration and NEPAD has, since becoming a Minister, built a mansion for himself at Akomadan and purchased another mansion near the Kumasi Golf Club from Unilever Ltd at the cost of US$100,000;

(36) Mr. S. K. Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, has, since becoming a Minister, built a mansion at Asonomaso in Kumasi at a cost of ?1.5 Billion and received a gift of a Mercedes Benz 230 saloon car on his 50th birthday;

(37) Vice President Aliu Mahama and Northern Regional Chairman of the NPP Alhaji Salifu COP, used their influence to stop the trial of a ?71 million Lands Commission embezzlement case involving one Comfort Chilalah, a relation of the Vice President’s wife;

(38) NPP MP for Ledzokuku and Minister of Fisheries Eddie Akita, has used his position to embezzle ?40 million of AIDS money belonging to the anti-AIDS NGO, the Christian Aid Mission of which he was a patron, granted it by the Ghana AIDS Commission to help wipe out the dreadful disease;

(39) The entire Wereko-Brobby/VRA Saga involving allegations levelled against him by the staff and workers of the VRA and the circumstances surrounding the rental of the non-functional Strategic Reserve Plant (SRP);

(40) The circumstances surrounding the contract or contracts to purchase four helicopters for the Ghana Air Force involving Minister of Defence Dr. Kwame Addo-Kufuor;

(41) Two GFA officials to the Third Women’s World Cup Football Tournament in the USA were alleged to be involved in thievery and sexual harassment offences;

(42) A major blunder by the Minister of Mines Mrs. Cecilia Bannerman is costing the country millions of dollars in diamond trade and taxes;

(43) Police investigations into a suspected ‘419’ gang have stalled as a result of unwarranted interference by the Minister of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey;

(44) The Manya Krobo DCE, Andrews Teye, and four others, are involved in naked bribery, misappropriation of funds, theft, and wilfully causing financial loss to the State involving ?7 Billion part of which was used for the visit of Vice President Aliu Mahama (?21.7 million), and First Lady Mrs. Theresa Kufuor (?8.9 million);

(45) A ‘Ministers Protocol Supplement’ account has been created under which at the end of every month every Minister collects ?10 million and every Deputy Minister collects ?5 million as unaccountable imprest;

(46) The NPP Government was aware that Chris Asher had escaped from lawful custody, was being wanted to stand trial for murder, and was being wanted in the USA to assist FBI investigations into charges of wire fraud and counterfeiting, and yet allowed the NRC to grant him immunity from arrest to come and give evidence before the NRC and also granted him permission to launch a book on the 1982 kidnapping and murder of the three High Court Judges and the retired army officer, because of financial contribution that he made to the NPP’s coffers;

(47) Former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu and Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive Kofi Jumah, also known as Kofi Ghana, diverted a national cities project known as the ‘Cities Alliance Project’ meant for Accra, Kumasi, Sekondi-Takoradi and Koforidua, to a ‘City Development Strategy Project’ meant exclusively for Kumasi alone and for which a Project Preparation Facility of US$75,000 has already been released by the World Bank and for which Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu got himself appointed as ‘Task Master’, receiving payment in dollars;

(48) The VRA under Dr. Charles Yves Wereko-Brobby fraudulently made a penalty payment of ?140 Billion for not lifting crude oil on schedule when the Company from which the crude oil was to have been lifted had not invoiced VRA for payment because they had been informed that VRA did not require the cargo, and the Company is also now alleging that it never received any such payment allegedly made to it by the VRA;

(49) A large amount of money in foreign exchange was left in a foreign Project Account at the Ministry of Education by the departing NDC Government, and it is this money that is used to finance part of the large delegation that accompanies the President on his numerous foreign trips;

(50) Mr. Peter Kwaku Amoabeng, NPP MP for Lower West Akim constituency, fraudulently attempted to procure an Austrian visa for a woman and her two children who he falsely represented as his wife and children respectively, and in the process committed the offences of fraud by false pretences, forgery, perjury, impersonation and deceit of public officer.