Zero tolerance on trial

The New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) Zero Tolerance for Corruption will be put to the test in the next few weeks when the final report of a ?3b financial scandal that rocked the Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB) is submitted to the Attorney General’s Office.

The credibility of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) under the directorship of Theophilus Cudjoe, which undertook the investigations into the alleged financial scandal, would also come under serious scrutiny. Another question that will come to the fore in the scandal is whether the SFO is an independent body or is under political apron strings.

The Evening News investigations can confirm that the SFO has completed its investigations into the scandal in which the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, was accused by the man at the center of investigations, K.N. Atuahene, for directing him to do certain things.

But, the SFO, which has among its functions to investigate any suspected offence provided for by law which appears to the Executive Director on reasonable grounds to involve serious financial or economic loss to the state or any state organization or other institution in which the state has financial interest, is dragging its feet in releasing the report.

Further investigations have revealed that the SFO did little to trace the whereabouts of Raphael Baffour Awuah, 33, the Monitoring Officer cum Estate Officer of GFZB who took a clean pair of heels from the Serious Fraud Headquarters, during the middle of interrogations on 12 July 2002.

Awuah’s interrogation by investigators of the SFO would have been vital to the final findings since he handled all the contracts of the Board and was strategically placed as a Monitoring Officer of all renovations that the Board undertook during the tenure of the axed Director, Atuahene.

Although Awuah claimed to be a product of the University of Ghana, Legon, where he offered Religion, he was appointed to handle the professional portfolio as Estate and Monitoring Officer at the GFZB. He was further granted a car loan of ?30m after he was just seven months in employment.

However, when The Evening News contacted the SFO, Tetteh Mensah, Director in-charge of instigations told the paper that the investigations into the GFZB financial scandal had been completed. Asked what the SFO did to trace Baffuor Awuah, the prime suspect in the scandal, Tetteh Mensah said the SFO was only to investigate the financial scandal, and if they had information on Baffuor Awuah they would alert the police to arrest him.

When asked whether the Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Apraku was linked to the scandal in anyway he said he could not comment. He said the team of the SFO investigators were now putting the final reports together which would be submitted to him for study before sending it to the Attorney General.

He said at every stage of the investigation, the team briefed him but he could not tell the paper anything until the final report was out.

The SFO took over the investigations into the alleged case of ?3b financial scandal during the short tenure of Kwadwo Atuahene, the immediate past director of the GFZB. This followed the completion of forensic audit into the tenure of Atuahene, which was ordered by the Board of Directors of GFZB, following accusation of reckless spending during his tenure.