Sale of GNPC D511, Letter to Mr Kweku Baako

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Ede be ke ke 10 years ago

BIG FUCK U

BIG FUCK U
Selassie Dzokoto 10 years ago

By insulting such an elderly man, you have halved your life span into two

By insulting such an elderly man, you have halved your life span into two
SGT ANANI FIADZOE 10 years ago

Interesting that Dr Quaah likened the panelist who criticised him to the reasoning level lower than his six-year old's. And he did not realise he had also resorted to insulting!!! Or that he exposed himself that he did not fo ...
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Interesting that Dr Quaah likened the panelist who criticised him to the reasoning level lower than his six-year old's. And he did not realise he had also resorted to insulting!!! Or that he exposed himself that he did not follow his grandfather's advice “never to argue with certain kinds of people because a bystander might not be able to tell the difference.”

Can anyone tell me the difference between the insulting panelist and an insulting Dr Quaah?

I have no respect for Ghanaian with a Ph.D. (except Dr. Abudu!)
Dallas 10 years ago

And who is Dr. Abudu that we may learn from his ways?

And who is Dr. Abudu that we may learn from his ways?
Dallas 10 years ago

And who is Dr. Abudu that we may learn from his ways?

And who is Dr. Abudu that we may learn from his ways?
Yaw Ohemeng 10 years ago

I was wondering why the long silence when your appearance before the Commission was being spinned to suit political purposes. You have partially spoken but I expect you, after the dust has settled, to write a comprehensive ar ...
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I was wondering why the long silence when your appearance before the Commission was being spinned to suit political purposes. You have partially spoken but I expect you, after the dust has settled, to write a comprehensive article about GNPC when you took over as acting CEO. We have discussed this, albeit briefly.

Do not be modest and do not hold your punches when you come to do this. Ghana is indebted to you more than Ghanaians think. Most people in Ghana do not know that the seismic data that led to the discovery of oil in commercial quantities was your handiwork and that of people that you trained.

Enjoy your stay in Ghana but when you settle down, please either write an article or brief me to do that. Ghanaians are being taken for a ride on this issue. Why would the Commission not call the Ministers involved at the time instead of skirting around the issue - IT IS JUST PLAIN POLITICS TO COVER NDC MISDEEDS!
Yag 10 years ago

Dr.Q we heard Kweku who said there was a board , but you said there was no board at that time is that rigth ,?

Dr.Q we heard Kweku who said there was a board , but you said there was no board at that time is that rigth ,?
Tufuoantie 10 years ago

Your earlier promting,but this piece woefully fails to address the pertinent questions many Ghanaians have raised about the drillship saga.
I thought you had indicated you were seized with the FACTS of this issue,so what do ...
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Your earlier promting,but this piece woefully fails to address the pertinent questions many Ghanaians have raised about the drillship saga.
I thought you had indicated you were seized with the FACTS of this issue,so what do you need to be briefed about? Go ahead,make our day!
Yaw Ohemeng 10 years ago

My asking for the briefing was on the rot that was GNPC in 2001. For the drill ship issue, most of you have decided to suffer from amnesia.

This was the basis of the tro and fro between Tsatsu Tsikata and Kan-Dapaah in 20 ...
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My asking for the briefing was on the rot that was GNPC in 2001. For the drill ship issue, most of you have decided to suffer from amnesia.

This was the basis of the tro and fro between Tsatsu Tsikata and Kan-Dapaah in 2001. It was no secret that the Drill ship had been sold to defray debts incurred.

I think Dr Ofori Quaah had held back because a number of actors are yet to be called before the Commission and that he was asked to provide answers to specific questions. The Commission is not about the state of GNPC but rather what accounted for the judgement debt. Getting to know that much should not have taken this messy route.

I will add that of all the issues that have come before the Commissioner, this is the only one where politicians of that time and Executives have volunteered to appear. In all the others, the political actors have hidden behind civil servants. That is why I applaud the actors in this one, especially Dr Ofori-Quaah who left his duties in the UK to appear. Such people deserve commendation instead of villification, even if we do not like their answers.

I maintain that if the Commissioner approach the other 'stinking' judgement debt issues with the same diligence, as in this one, he would have done Mother Ghana a whole lot of good. On the other hand if he only overworks this one without doing same for the others, he would have failed miserably.

The jury is still out.
Ofori Quaah 10 years ago

Yaw,
I am safely back in the UK. Thanks so much for putting up such a strong defence on my behalf. Yes, I intend to write something someday. I understand all the other people involved in the drill ship sale saga are to be in ...
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Yaw,
I am safely back in the UK. Thanks so much for putting up such a strong defence on my behalf. Yes, I intend to write something someday. I understand all the other people involved in the drill ship sale saga are to be invited by the sole commissioner.

I am therefore waiting till after everyone has been to the commissioner.

Yes, I still do not understand why this matter is being allowed to run and run. The D511 had already been mortgaged against the hedging deal way back in 1998. It would have been sold anyway. The case had already cost GNPC enormous amounts of money in legal fees. With the corporation completely broke and Ghana going HIPC, where exactly was the money coming from to pay further legal fees?

The vessel had been valued at $20m. KT Hammond sold it for $$24m. He also beat down the indebtedness from $47m to $19.5m! The remaining $3.5m has now been traced to the Ghana Government dollar account at Chase Manhattan. So I am not sure what the continuing fuss and vilification is all about.
Have a great day, Yaw.
Yaw Ohemeng 10 years ago

Uncle K, welcome back to the UK. I shall make contact after work to find out how you are doing.

I had to defend you because most of our countrymen have allowed politics to cloud their power of analysis.

This Drill ship ...
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Uncle K, welcome back to the UK. I shall make contact after work to find out how you are doing.

I had to defend you because most of our countrymen have allowed politics to cloud their power of analysis.

This Drill ship issue is covered in a lot of Energy magazines of 2001. These catalogue the mess in which the company was left by the previous management. A lot of them quote you and the re-structuring that was ongoing to focus the company on its core activities.

Well done anyway for helping to shed light on this saga and the fact that you interrupted your activities to answer the call of your nation.

Have a blessed day.
gq 10 years ago

Dr. Quaah, I have noted with interest your response to Yaw. Your response however begs for a few questions to asked and answers to be forth coming.

1. Were you been chased out of Ghana and by who or which people? Let us be ...
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Dr. Quaah, I have noted with interest your response to Yaw. Your response however begs for a few questions to asked and answers to be forth coming.

1. Were you been chased out of Ghana and by who or which people? Let us be informed.

2. Who valued the ship at $20m and which company in their right mind will buy a used drill ship valued at a lower price, pay a higher price for it!?

3. Were the lawyers who originally handled the case ever paid? Who paid them and how much?

4. The most intriguing part of your reply to me is, the fact that you're defending the very person(s) you claim disrespected you ie KT Hammond. Makes me wanna ask is there complicity here?

5. Is Ghana International Bank a new bank that Ghanaians don't know of? or just a venue for channeling the hard earned tax payer's money?

If you call people wanting to know the truth "continuing fuss and vilification" no wonder you had to run away and feel safe in the UK.
Yaw Ohemeng 10 years ago

In our Ghanaian parlance, anyone who embark on a journey (especially involving air travel) uses this expression so do not read much into this, please.

Secondly, Kan-Dapaah and K T Hammond and I hear Tsatsu are also to appe ...
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In our Ghanaian parlance, anyone who embark on a journey (especially involving air travel) uses this expression so do not read much into this, please.

Secondly, Kan-Dapaah and K T Hammond and I hear Tsatsu are also to appear in the near future, so have the patience for things to unfold.

Thirdly, it was the Ghanaian Press (especially Radioxyz) who started the line that somehow Dr Ofori-Quaah was against K T Hammaond and Kan-Dapaah.

Did you hear any paper reporting the fact that Dr Ofori-Quaah said that the company's finances were in a mess to the extent that they could not pay their employees? Did you hear them make a lot of noise about him telling the Commission that the ship had been mortgaged and that it would have been sold at some point? Did you hear him say that $1m dollars went into paying the Lawyers involved?

You have all decided to see and read things that meet your prejudices and not issues as they occurred.
gq 10 years ago

Yaw, you and I can be at this all day long and may or may never come to an agreement on this issue. Which is fine so long as it does not degenerate into name calling and insults.

Firstly, I don't even read the aforemention ...
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Yaw, you and I can be at this all day long and may or may never come to an agreement on this issue. Which is fine so long as it does not degenerate into name calling and insults.

Firstly, I don't even read the aforementioned Radioxyz or listen to it in any shape or form. All my questions and assertions come from Dr. Quaah's reply to your piece and what he himself has written, with the exception of the Ghana International Bank bit.

Secondly, the lawyers who were paid, from everything I have read were not the original lawyers on the case but the law firm where KT Hammond allegedly worked when he was practicing "law" in the UK.Does that mean we have more issues of judgement
payments to come?

Thirdly, if the employees were not paid at that time, was the money realized from the sale of the ship used to pay the employees?

Fourthly, let us agree that the "mortgaged ship" had to sold at some point that's fine and dandy. But the question is are we been told the truth about the disbursement? How come Kwaku Baako can come into documents about disbursements that the bodies -SG,GNPC,MoF,BoG,A-G - that are part of and should be part of the process don't have? Doesn't that stink to high heavens?

And if he is praising Kwaku Baako, defending KT Hammond by accusing others of "continuing fuss and vilification", does that not evoke the question of complicity?.

BTW,questioning issues does not have to meet any prejudices other than wanting to know the truth by me and perhaps many other people.
Ofori Quaah 10 years ago

gq,
I have written elsewhere that I will not hold brief for anybody, since they are also scheduled to appear before the Commission.

As far as the Bindman and Bindman (original GNPC lawyers) were concerned, their outstandi ...
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gq,
I have written elsewhere that I will not hold brief for anybody, since they are also scheduled to appear before the Commission.

As far as the Bindman and Bindman (original GNPC lawyers) were concerned, their outstanding fees were settled after the sale. I have spoken to solicitors who have assured me that if KT Hammond was not satisfied with Bindman and Bindman, he had every right as their client, to change lawyers. As to which new group he could engeage, I am sure he can answer for himself when it comes to his turn.

If you had listened to my answers at the commission, you would have heard me explain that $1m was used to pay the Ghanaian and expatriate staff on board the vessel and other legal fees.

The disbursement was $19.5m to Societe Generale, $1m for salaries and legal fees, and the remaining $3.5m paid into Ghana government coffers, which according to Kweku Baako, found its way to Ghana Government dollar account at Chase Manhattan in new York.

If state institutions that are funded by the Ghanaian taxpayer are so incompetent they cannot find their records, all we have to do is to go to the banks and institutions involved in the sale, pay a small fee and get the necessary records.

That is why I believe the current fuss is much ado about nothing!
gq 10 years ago

With my bad grammar and all I am happy to elicit a little bit more insight into the shenanigans called "the sale of GNPC drill ship". I'm pretty sure a couple of people may have been educated along the way.

My question - n ...
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With my bad grammar and all I am happy to elicit a little bit more insight into the shenanigans called "the sale of GNPC drill ship". I'm pretty sure a couple of people may have been educated along the way.

My question - not necessarily for you to answer - is, why does the taxpayer have to shell out more money for documents that should have been filed with the appropriate institutions in the first place!?

Ah ya'bre agu.
Ofori Quaah 10 years ago

GQ or whatever you call yourself, I am not sure what your question 1 exactly means, but while I was in Ghana, I drove freely through Tema and Accra (in horrible traffic jams) without hindrance. I went to see my dear mother an ...
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GQ or whatever you call yourself, I am not sure what your question 1 exactly means, but while I was in Ghana, I drove freely through Tema and Accra (in horrible traffic jams) without hindrance. I went to see my dear mother and siblings in the Central Region and went through security at the airport on my way back to the UK.

There are industry agencies that value all rigs and other industry-based equipment. If you had listened to Mr Justice Apau, he mentioned a valuation by GNPC staff. They used the same agency data for their valuation. It is no rocket science! One of those agencies actually commended KT Hammond for his "hard sell" because just a few days after the D511 was sold, prices of not just the D11 type, but ALL rigs, went down by several thousand dollars. That document is also available.

There were outstanding invoices from Bindman and Bindman, which KT settled. The records are there.

I am a Christian. I do not hold grudges. The fact that someone did something against me does not mean I should go out of my way to tell lies about that person. That is not my upbringing. I wanted the people of Ghana to be the judges. Maybe that is why Justice Apau commended me?

My o my! You do not know that Ghana Commercial Bank, Cheapside, London, sold majority shares to the Malaysians and became Ghana International Bank? You shouldn't be on this forum insulting other people in bad grammar!
gq 10 years ago

Thanks Dr. Quaah for your prompt response right out of grammar school.Honestly, when I read about your appearance at the commission I said to myself he is a guy who has come to enlighten us a little bit more about the shenani ...
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Thanks Dr. Quaah for your prompt response right out of grammar school.Honestly, when I read about your appearance at the commission I said to myself he is a guy who has come to enlighten us a little bit more about the shenanigans of the drill ship saga. I held you in high esteem. It is your piece praising Kwaku Baako that got me wondering if there is any complicity on your part. If no, just say no and move on. But you rather chose to talk about bad grammar? Goodness!!!

In case you don't know this forum is not for thesis writing. Bad english, bad grammar are all welcomed here so long as your point of view is expressed the way you want it expressed. If I were writing a doctoral thesis it will be written differently from the way I write on this forum just for your information.

Bad grammar you say? At least you did not have any problem understanding my bad grammar. Throughout my school days nobody ever accused me of bad grammar but if asking questions is perceived to be bad grammar then answer me with my bad grammar and all.
Old grammarian!!sometimes you have to break the rules to put your point across and I'm happy you did not miss my point.

Insulting you say? Misconstruing wanting to know with insults leaves me scratching old grammarian. Put simply I don't insult anybody on this forum. I leave the insults to SIMPLETONS.
Chaskele 10 years ago

Dont start insulting otherwise in this forum, you will quickly find yourself in the gutter. Just give us the facts and let us make up our minds

Dont start insulting otherwise in this forum, you will quickly find yourself in the gutter. Just give us the facts and let us make up our minds
Chaskele 10 years ago

This is certainly bad grammar on my part. sincere apologies

This is certainly bad grammar on my part. sincere apologies
Chaskele 10 years ago

Is this the real Mr Quaah or is this someone impersonating him??!!!

Is this the real Mr Quaah or is this someone impersonating him??!!!
Dallas 10 years ago

Mr. Yaw, it wasn't NDC ministers who forged letters of attorney and flew to london to sell the drill ship. K.T hammond and Kan Dapaah did but have gone into hiding since the drill ship mess emerged.

Mr. Yaw, it wasn't NDC ministers who forged letters of attorney and flew to london to sell the drill ship. K.T hammond and Kan Dapaah did but have gone into hiding since the drill ship mess emerged.
Joe 10 years ago

So with all the qualification you boast of how come we are all still struggling to trace the proceeds from the sale? You would have done yourself and mother Ghana a lot of great service if, instead of attacking panelists for ...
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So with all the qualification you boast of how come we are all still struggling to trace the proceeds from the sale? You would have done yourself and mother Ghana a lot of great service if, instead of attacking panelists for the views, you rather led us to understand how the proceeds were appropriated.

Please stop dangling your academic achievement as proof that you are above board.
Tufuoantie 10 years ago

Watching a replay of the proceedings,and has no qualms with the recording. Unlike him,I watched the entire programme and cannot believe the impression he is trying to create now. In any event,he should not let his 'reverence' ...
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Watching a replay of the proceedings,and has no qualms with the recording. Unlike him,I watched the entire programme and cannot believe the impression he is trying to create now. In any event,he should not let his 'reverence' for Justice Yaw Appau to stop him from seeking any legal remedies if he feels defamed. Btw,the panelist he is 'crowing' about is the Hon Mamama Ayariga,the Min. of Information & Media Relations for Ghana. In my honest view,I believe Ayariga and Amaliba,who trained lawyers, raised the pertinent questions which ought to exercise the mind of any honest and rational person. Why did he Ofori Quaah go the KT Hammond looking for back-up documentation about the transaction; and what response did he get? Can he appreciate the fact that we are in the kind of quandry we find ourselves(missing documents in govt archieves))to enable us unravel this mystery?
I initially accorded him high marks for his forthright testimony before the JDC,but I can see him engaging in 'damage control' after the fact. Putting words in the mouth of Ayariga is not gong to assuage the doubts his testimony has raised in the minds of the public!
For all the braging about his academic laurels,
Ofori Quaah 10 years ago

Tufuoantie,
Did you really watch/listen to the whole programme? Where did I say I went to KT to demand back-up documentation? What I said was "...When I did not hear from him after his return from the UK, I went to ask about ...
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Tufuoantie,
Did you really watch/listen to the whole programme? Where did I say I went to KT to demand back-up documentation? What I said was "...When I did not hear from him after his return from the UK, I went to ask about the details of the sale transaction."

How does that translate into "demand for back-up documentation?"

We really have a problem as a nation, in putting political colours on every little thing in our country, or else our education system is in very serious trouble, if our people cannot read/listen to simple sentences in English and make logical deductions!
Kwobia (Toronto. ) 10 years ago

I expected a much more vigorous defence of your position,Dr Quaah.Too much "Mia culpa" without saying why.

I expected a much more vigorous defence of your position,Dr Quaah.Too much "Mia culpa" without saying why.
Kwami - US 10 years ago

Why is it that Ph.D holders seem to place themselves above everybody, including the Almighty God, in Ghana? Is it because of ignorance, or arrogance, or both? In the USA, Ph.D holders are rather servants than Almighty Masters ...
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Why is it that Ph.D holders seem to place themselves above everybody, including the Almighty God, in Ghana? Is it because of ignorance, or arrogance, or both? In the USA, Ph.D holders are rather servants than Almighty Masters. Just walk into a Professor's office, or an MD (Medical Doctor) NOT Managing Director in the USA, and you will feel like calling on them every now and then even if you have nothing to discuss with them in their office. But in Africa, Ghana included, why makes our Professors and Medical Doctors to be so hostile to their students and patients? Some of them cannot even reason or think straight. What is going on?
Kwami - US 10 years ago

what makes instead of 'why makes'

what makes instead of 'why makes'
SGT ANANI FIADZOE 10 years ago

Ph.Ds are not good for Africans. Cosnider the following:
1) Dr. Quaah's incompetence led to the disappearance of the Drill Ship
2) Look at what Dr Wireku-Brobbery did at VRA and Ghana@50
3) Dr Akoto sold Ghana Olil Palm De ...
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Ph.Ds are not good for Africans. Cosnider the following:
1) Dr. Quaah's incompetence led to the disappearance of the Drill Ship
2) Look at what Dr Wireku-Brobbery did at VRA and Ghana@50
3) Dr Akoto sold Ghana Olil Palm Development Company and pocketed the proceeds
etc

I believe Boko Haram are right.
Ofori Quaah 10 years ago

It is good that you never progressed beyond Sargeant, if you ever were a soldier. Your "Financial Wizard" countryman went and did a disastrous hedging deal that went horribly wrong.

The rig was mortgaged to Societe General ...
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It is good that you never progressed beyond Sargeant, if you ever were a soldier. Your "Financial Wizard" countryman went and did a disastrous hedging deal that went horribly wrong.

The rig was mortgaged to Societe Generale way back in 1998 (Kweku Baako has published that fact.) The debt to SG had grown to $47m. KT Hammond went and negotiated it down to $19.5m and managed to sell a rig that had been valued at $20m for $24m!

Where was the incompetence? Giving legal authority to rid Ghana of a 40 year old junk that had become an albatross around the neck of GNPC and the people of Ghana.

Oh, I forgot that you do not have enough intelligence to understand such matters!
Kofi poku 10 years ago

i think most of u should take ur time to read and understand , he was not talking about PHD but rather how ndc is trying to label him as a stoogee of npp to defrued ghanaians.let respect ourselves little bit .

i think most of u should take ur time to read and understand , he was not talking about PHD but rather how ndc is trying to label him as a stoogee of npp to defrued ghanaians.let respect ourselves little bit .
mohammed 10 years ago

why did you make yourself a stipend if you did not benefit directlyy or indirectly in the drill ship corrupt deal? Kweku Baako is also a liar. if what you are saying is true tell me the name of the judge who deliver the judge ...
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why did you make yourself a stipend if you did not benefit directlyy or indirectly in the drill ship corrupt deal? Kweku Baako is also a liar. if what you are saying is true tell me the name of the judge who deliver the judgement, which court and court room number and date. we can google the case from the archive. Mills protected your loots and also organized wayome and some- a disgrace to academia.
Roy 10 years ago

Cut and pest PHD. You should be ashame of yourself.

Cut and pest PHD. You should be ashame of yourself.
Dallas 10 years ago

Dr. Ofori Quaah, there's no way you can exornoate yourself from the drill ship mess. The right person for you to have taken to the cleaners is the one who asked you to signed the letter but you didn't raise any objection. If ...
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Dr. Ofori Quaah, there's no way you can exornoate yourself from the drill ship mess. The right person for you to have taken to the cleaners is the one who asked you to signed the letter but you didn't raise any objection. If you were not rubber-stamp stomach-direction CEO, you would have refused to dumbly appended your signature to the letter even if it meant resigning from your job to keep a clean sheet. Now that you're caught neck-deep in drill ship corruption, you have to blame yourself for allowing yourself to be used to aid and abet corruption at GNPC. Even though you might not have personally benefited from the crude sale of the drill ship, you still can't exempt yourself from blame.
Ofori Quaah 10 years ago

Dallas,
Why are you insulting me in your horrible English? Like most people that have been trying to make political capital out of the sale of the D511 saga, you obviously have no basic understanding of what that thing was ...
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Dallas,
Why are you insulting me in your horrible English? Like most people that have been trying to make political capital out of the sale of the D511 saga, you obviously have no basic understanding of what that thing was all about.

The D511 had been mortgaged in a disastrous hedging deal to the bank that financed the disaster that it was, as far back as 1998. SG would have sold it long before 2001, if they could obtain a price that would cover their indebtedness.

As it happened, KT Hammond managed to beat the indebtedness down to $19.5m and sold the rig whose book value was only $20m, for $24m and paid off the accumulated debts in terms of staff salaries and legal fees.

Where did I go wrong by giving the legal authority to sell a non-performing asset that had become an albatross around the neck of GNPC and the people of Ghana who owned the vessel? Since Kweku Baako has been able to trace the remaining $3.5m to the Ghana Government dollar account in Chase Manhattan, where is the corruption?

At the appropriate time I shall write an article on how some of us sacrificed our personal savings and the well being of our families in the service of GNPC, in the effort to find oil for Ghana for nit wits like you to enjoy its benefits and still hurl insults at decent citizens!
Dallas 10 years ago

Decent citizen my foot! If people of your calibre are the decent citizens in Ghana, then our country would've been sold into slavery by now. People who would readily append their signatures to letters for a drill ship to be s ...
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Decent citizen my foot! If people of your calibre are the decent citizens in Ghana, then our country would've been sold into slavery by now. People who would readily append their signatures to letters for a drill ship to be sold like a table-top tomatoes business can certainly not be described as decent citizens. The truth hurts but it must be told. The cracks of the matter is that Mr. Quaah was only protecting his job. He did not even know how much the drill ship was sold neither did he know how much was paid to the supposed debtors, societe generale. Hence he's now clinching onto he wobbling PR of Kwaku Baako for survival. What a pity!
Nframa Boni 10 years ago

Dr. Ofori Quaah, unfortunately your short letter does not provide any clarity to the matter at hand. I'm disappointed

Dr. Ofori Quaah, unfortunately your short letter does not provide any clarity to the matter at hand. I'm disappointed
Yaw Boakye 10 years ago

Mr Quaah you cannot be exonerated from being tried because you signed the document paving the way for its sale.
You live in London, can you do this in where you residing now? Shut up for you have been caught in the web.

Mr Quaah you cannot be exonerated from being tried because you signed the document paving the way for its sale.
You live in London, can you do this in where you residing now? Shut up for you have been caught in the web.
Ofori Quaah 10 years ago

Yaw Boakye,
You seem to be one of those so-called educated Ghanaians who lack basic understanding of the English language! If I have really been caught in a web, why did Mr Justice Apau commend my testimony? Why wasn't I arr ...
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Yaw Boakye,
You seem to be one of those so-called educated Ghanaians who lack basic understanding of the English language! If I have really been caught in a web, why did Mr Justice Apau commend my testimony? Why wasn't I arrested then?

The rig had been mortgaged to Societe Generale way back in 1998. The only reason they did not sell it before 2001 was that its book values of $20m could not cover their costs of $47m! KT Hammond managed to negotiate the debt down to $19.5m, sold the $20m rig for $24m and settled the rotten debts and paid those Ghanaian and expatriate employees on the rig who had not been paid for 7 months, and cleared other legal fees.

The bone of contention was the remaining $3.5m, which Kweku Baako has now been able to trace to the Ghana Government dollar account at Chase Manhattan in New York.

So where did I go wrong?? Giving the legal authority to sell a non-performing junk that had become and albatross around the neck of GNPC and the people of Ghana?

While I was in Ghana, I read through newspapers, listened to radio phone programmes and remeniced on postings on Ghanaweb and I had no doubt why it takes people 3 hours to travel from Madina to Accra, and why our national capital is swallowed up in garbage!
alfred 10 years ago

Dr,Quaah & co let your voices be heard........in the development of this leaderless & indiscipline country

Dr,Quaah & co let your voices be heard........in the development of this leaderless & indiscipline country
OKOE 10 years ago

I KNOW OF MANY PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES WITH THESE QUALIFICATIONS, BUT IN ORDER NOT TO CONFUSE THE PAPER DOCTORS AS A FRIEND FROM MY VILLAGE CHOOSES TO CALL THEM, CHOOSE TO WRITE PhD AFTER THEIR NAMES INSTEAD OF THE DOCTOR ( ...
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I KNOW OF MANY PEOPLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES WITH THESE QUALIFICATIONS, BUT IN ORDER NOT TO CONFUSE THE PAPER DOCTORS AS A FRIEND FROM MY VILLAGE CHOOSES TO CALL THEM, CHOOSE TO WRITE PhD AFTER THEIR NAMES INSTEAD OF THE DOCTOR (Dr.) IT IS CONFUSING TO THE AVERAGE GHANAIAN TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN MEDICAL DOCTORS AND THE PhD HOLDERS. PLEASE USE PhD AND NOT THE DOCTOR DESIGNATION. BELIEVE ME I DO NOT ENVY YOUR QUALIFICATION PLEASE.
Haile Mengistus Manasseh V11 10 years ago

Hei! Ghanaians beware of this deception. This article was never written by Dr. Ofori Quaah. This is another Kweku Baako inferior tactics.This article originates from the office of Kweku Baako's "Crusading Guide".We are all no ...
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Hei! Ghanaians beware of this deception. This article was never written by Dr. Ofori Quaah. This is another Kweku Baako inferior tactics.This article originates from the office of Kweku Baako's "Crusading Guide".We are all not fools and small minded as Kweku Baako thinks.
GENERAL DeGAULE 10 years ago

Dear Mr Quaah,

The drill ship was mortgaged to SG. How was that done? Was it pledged as security for some debt that GNPC owed to SG? If that was the case then why didn't SG institute legal proceedings to seize or acquire ...
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Dear Mr Quaah,

The drill ship was mortgaged to SG. How was that done? Was it pledged as security for some debt that GNPC owed to SG? If that was the case then why didn't SG institute legal proceedings to seize or acquire ownership of the asset.
You see, good governance requires compliance with due process. You do not set a proper precedent by granting or allowing yourself to be roped into a dubious deal to grant power of attorney to someone when you are not the proper person or institution to do so.

State assets are not personal items to be disposed of in a manner of an individual's choosing. You are residing in the UK now. Do you ever think that a Minister of State can on his own accord engage in such a transaction? Irrespective of how much the sale fetched and whether we made a loss or a profit, transparency and due process is what is required. Did you ever see the Particulars of Sale or Sale Agreement? How was the payment made and how were the deductions effected to leave a balance. Do you know for a fact that £3m is deposited in a Chase Manhattan Bank Account or are you relying on the say so of Kwaku Baako? How was the sale of this asset reflected in the financial statement and books of GNPC? Did it just disappear? Is that the quality of stewardship to be expected of people charged with running state institutions?
Ofori Quaah 10 years ago

General DeGaulle,
It seems you did not listen to my discourse with the Sole Commissioner. The rig had been pledged as security for the huge debt that had arisen as a result of the hedging deal way back in 1998. The hedging t ...
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General DeGaulle,
It seems you did not listen to my discourse with the Sole Commissioner. The rig had been pledged as security for the huge debt that had arisen as a result of the hedging deal way back in 1998. The hedging thing had been financed by Societe Generale, which seized the rig in Omani waters. That is all public knowledge now.

The case was running in the courts at huge costs to the corporation which was totally broke by 2001. There were unpaid invoices from the the corporation's lawyers. There had not been an active Board for several months, so in May 2001, the minister according to later sections of PNDC Law 64, exercised oversight responsibility for the corporation. Through a cabinet memorandum, the minister decided to re-negotiate the debt position. A parallel negotiation was going on alongside the court case any way.

The debt was beaten down to $19.5m. The rig had to be sold to pay off the debts and the only way it could be sold was for "the owner" of this non-performing asset to grant the authority to sell it.

The rig was sold and the debts settled, with the remaining $3.5m paid into Ghana Government coffers. Since others involved in the saga are scheduled to appear before the Commission, why wouldn't people wait to hear what they have to say about the sale?

This was an asset which was of no value whatsoever to our exploration effort, and I told the commissioner so. Would you really keep "an asset" that costs you $40,000/month with no revenues, sitting on the open oceans with no insurance and several innocent souls on board, many of them North Americans whose relatives could sue the owner of GNPC (the government of Ghana) if something went wrong?

We live in a country where someone can walk into a ministry with a piece of worthless paper and walk out with millions, where someone can be paid millions for doing absolute damn all. Are you surprised that the government of the day could sell equipment belonging to a state entity and pay the proceeds into its own coffers?

My friend, in matters like exploration of oil and gas or generating electricity and constructing bridges,where politicians have absolutely no clue, things work like clockwork. It is where they interfere in what they think they know that the problems arise.

Remember, we designed, acquired, processed and interpreted multi-million dollar 2D/3D seismic surveys with several multinational companies. Selling a forty year old non-performing junk is nothing anywhere close to rocket science. May be you should get hold of the recording of my appearance at the Commission and listen to it. The answers to your questions are right there!
GENERAL DeGAULE 10 years ago

I am glad you've shed further light on this matter. What I find fascinating in your response is the statement to the effect that anybody can rob the state or do what ever they want as a public official "they walk into the min ...
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I am glad you've shed further light on this matter. What I find fascinating in your response is the statement to the effect that anybody can rob the state or do what ever they want as a public official "they walk into the ministry with a piece of paper" and come out wealthy. The end justifies the means and in effect you were supportive if not instrumental in the manner the ship was sold.

For a transaction that you claim went so well to defray GNPC's indebtedness to SG, is it not rather surprising that the SG rep in Ghana claimed that his organisation could not assist the Commissioner with information to confirm receipt of payment? Hence my question to you was how was the transaction reflected in the books of GNPC? If there was a balance on the sale, was that to be credited to GNPC or to be paid into a 'Government Account? Do you know for a fact that such a transfer was made? Your response will be very much appreciated.

The issue is whether you want to be regarded as a judicious steward of the institution you were charged with managing or a compliant pawn in a political settlement.
Ofori Quaah 10 years ago

De Gaulle,
I don't think you got my point. The late Krobo Edusei once said "The only thing we cannot do is turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man!" Ghanaian politicians still believe in that axiom and we as their ele ...
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De Gaulle,
I don't think you got my point. The late Krobo Edusei once said "The only thing we cannot do is turn a man into a woman and a woman into a man!" Ghanaian politicians still believe in that axiom and we as their electorate are goading them on to do just that.

I do not say it is right. GNPC had no board. I had been brought in to restructure the corporation. I knew what was needed to be done to re-focus on exploration and that included selling off useless "assets." We knew the value of each of them. If the government was prepared to take that one burden off our heads, we had 99 other issues to deal with.

Societe Generale's rep in Ghana did not say he did not know anything about the deal. What he said was "under French Law, they are only obliged to keep records of transactions for 10 years!" This rig was sold twelve years ago!

Several of the organisations involved in the sale were either Omani or British. Those will still have documents, if even deposited in archives. All that is required is the payment of a small fee to obtain the necessary documentation.

You do not seem to have got my point about Ghanaian politicians doing what they like. Again if you had listened to my answers at the commission, you would have heard that I asked about the details of the transaction and eventually wrote for answers, which took two months to arrive. At least, those two letters are available, and that includes how the proceeds were disbursed.

Others are scheduled to appear before the commission to answer for their part in this saga. May be we should all wait till then.

The constitution of Ghana requires that the President and ALL his appointees declare their assets no more than two months after taking office. Has anyone declared his/her assets? Or has any appointee ever declared his/her assets? May be a few. Have we as a people ever done anything to show our displeasure? I doubt.

As far as that forty year old drill ship was concerned, I would have sold it the very first week if there was a board, but I would have done so differently.
GENERAL DeGAULE 10 years ago

Thanks for your response. In restructuring an organization would you not expect the remainder of the proceeds of the sale to be returned to the organisation? Or in your book, getting rid of "useless" assets meant exactly that ...
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Thanks for your response. In restructuring an organization would you not expect the remainder of the proceeds of the sale to be returned to the organisation? Or in your book, getting rid of "useless" assets meant exactly that? Getting rid of them, hence my question which perhaps you have skirted round all along, How was the sale reflected in the financial statements of GNPC. Am I to assume that accounting or financial management is not your forte and you could care less about financial stewardship of the organisation that you were charged with restructuring.

I am really astonished by your take on the SG Rep's response to the Commissioner. You say that he "did not say he did not know anything about the deal." But did his response confirm that SG had indeed been paid anything at all? He may not have said so but he implied it in his response. He resides in Ghana and was in all probability given notice to appear before the Commissioner. Do you not believe that a country rep worth his stature would have done his research prior to appearing before the Commissioner?

No doubt much will come to light as events unfold and we will continue with our discussion.
KOKOLIKOKO 10 years ago

You state "The constitution of Ghana requires that the President and ALL his appointees declare their assets no more than two months after taking office. Has anyone declared his/her assets? Or has any appointee ever declared ...
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You state "The constitution of Ghana requires that the President and ALL his appointees declare their assets no more than two months after taking office. Has anyone declared his/her assets? Or has any appointee ever declared his/her assets? May be a few. Have we as a people ever done anything to show our displeasure? I doubt"

I don't get you! If in your belief or estimation, we as a people haven't demonstrated our displeasure at what you believe is a "fact" that the President and his ministers haven't declared their assets yet, should that preclude us from expressing our displeasure about the drill ship transaction?
Dallas 10 years ago

The drill ship could not have been classified as a 'useless ''assets'' which needed to be sold. Granted that it was even a scrap, due process still needed to be followed in order to dispose it off.

The drill ship could not have been classified as a 'useless ''assets'' which needed to be sold. Granted that it was even a scrap, due process still needed to be followed in order to dispose it off.

Sale of GNPC D511, Letter to Mr Kweku Baako

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