Columnist 

HERE COME THE NPP ECONOMIC RAPISTS!

In the reign of Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor as President of Ghana, he, his Ministers and top Party officials have made sure that they have put a great distance between themselves, their sons and daughters, wives, relatives, family members, concubines and female “personal entertainers” and poverty. President Kufuor and his NPP Government officials have set up or aided in the setting up of businesses for all these family members, hangers-on and other lackeys using either knowledge secured from their being in Government or directly providing state resources to them as start up capital.

In the process, they have broken all the rules against insider trading, fiduciary obligations, corporate raiding, assets stripping and tortuous interference with business and the poor Ghanaian electorate who put them in power are the losers.

The stories, truths and rumours, are legion. Here are only a few of them.

The story begins with President Kufuor himself.

· The President assisted his “41 year old accountant” son, “Chief” John Addo Kufuor, to secure loans from the state-owned National Investment Bank and the ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development (EBID) in which Ghana has substantial shares, to buy a US$ 8million hotel now known as “Hotel Kufuor”.

· The same son, “Chief” John Addo Kufuor, imported tens of thousands of prepaid electric meters for the VRA which were rejected for poor quality but were foisted on the ECG. These poor quality prepaid meters are part of the reasons why the ECG is broke today.

· A spare parts dealer in Kumasi with no experience whatsoever in construction was awarded the contract to construct the Boankra Inland Port. Five years on, the project which was to be completed in 18 months is still uncompleted. Meanwhile, over 85% of the amount has been paid to the contracting company whose owner, one Kamel, a spare parts dealer, is a very good friend of President Kufuor. In spite of the contractor’s non performance, the consultants, Antwi, Donkor, Krakue and Partners, have not recommended that the Performance Bond be called up and the contract terminated. Over ¢5 billion of the taxpayers’ money has gone down the drain.

· One Kwame Boakye Yiadom, a cousin of President Kufuor, set up a company, “Sunshine Commodities Ltd”, and was granted licence to operate as a licensed cocoa buying company. In only two years, he ran up a debt of over ¢20 billion. His licence has been withdrawn by the Ghana cocoa Board but no effort is being made to retrieve the ¢20 billion from him.

Next on the list is Kwamena Bartels.

· Kwamena Bartels got his daughter Sheila Bartels to set up two companies, “Platinum Technologies Ltd”, and “Stay Sweet Sugar Industries Ltd”. Platinum Technologies Company secured a ¢2 billion loan under the Ghana Government Trade and Investment Reform Programme facility whilst Stay Sweet Sugar Industries Ltd secured a ¢4 billion facility under the Ghana Private Sector Development Fund-Italian Credit under the control of Kwamena Bartels’ Ministry of Private Sector Development. Sheila Bartels misused the loans and to date has not been able to repay a pesewa of it. Instead of applying the funds to the purposes for which they were secured, Sheila Bartels used part of the state resources to meet the “Covenant between God and her Company”. She used an amount of ¢52 million of the loans to meet her tithes obligations to her churches as follows:-

Prayer of Hope Ministry – ¢35 million

Global Revival Ministries – ¢10 million

Other churches – ¢7 million.

As far as Sheila Bartels is concerned, the Ghana Government loan to her is her private income. She obviously has no intention of paying back the facilities.

Kwadwo Mpiani comes next.

· Kwadwo Mpiani got his nephew Eric Agyemang to set up a company to acquire the agency for Rover and Jaguar cars. The NPP Government then decided that Government Ministers and other top officials should use Rover vehicles and foreign VVIP visitors to Ghana should also be chauffeured in Rover, Jaguar and Chrysler cars. The Government has spent over US$10 million in the importation of these cars and Mr. Eric Agyeman has made profits running into billions of cedis in these transactions.

Kyeremanteng Agyarko

Fourth on the list is Kyeremanteng Agyarko, the Chief Executive of the Food and Drugs Board (FDB) and brother of one of the NPP Presidential candidate aspirants.

· It is alleged that an amount of ¢13 billion was allocated in 2005 for the FDB “awareness campaign”. However, only ¢6 billion was actually released to the FDB. It is alleged that a good part of the amount was used by the Chief Executive to buy buses for his private use. The rumour is that all the buses plying our roads with the inscription “Lover Boy” belong to him. It is also alleged that he has acquired one of the posh and plush Trassaco Valley houses and that he has also sold about 4 of the FDB auctioned vehicles to himself which vehicles he intends using during his campaign for one of the Parliamentary seats in the Eastern Region on the ticket of the NPP.

Number Five is Yaw Osafo Marfo, NPP Presidential candidate aspirant.

· In a bid not to be outdone by his colleagues, Mr. Osafo Marfo, one time Finance Minister, allegedly allocated an amount of about US$600,000.00 from the Japanese Grant to Mr. Larry Attafuah, the then Special Assistant of the current Finance Minister Mr. Kwadwo Baah Wiredu. The amount was used by Mr. Attafua to construct the “Ages-Abba” Hostel near the Trinity College for rental by University Students who should have been housed by the Government. The students at “Ages-Abba” Hostel pay about ¢6 million per semester per student. The question is: why did the NPP Government not utilise the Japanese Grant to build hostels for the University students directly?

· We understand that when Mr. Osafo Marfo was Managing Director of the defunct Bank for Housing and Construction (BHC), he granted a huge loan to the same Larry Attafuah to set up a toilet roll factory. The BHC was run to the ground and has since been liquidated.

Number Six is Nana Akufo-Addo, another NPP Presidential candidate aspirant.

· Nana Akufo Addo, former Attorney General and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, got his companion Ms. Ursula Owusu to be appointed as Acting Managing Director of WESTEL. As Managing Director of Westel, Ursula is paid US$8,700 per month, receives an annual performance bonus of US$21,000, and is provided with a US$90,000 four wheel drive vehicle. With such a comfortable resettlement package, Ursula, who allegedly abandoned her husband who was with her in the Middle East for a job as Special Assistant to Nana Akufo-Addo at the Attorney-General’s Department, has become a vociferous spokesperson for the NPP Government.

A final word about Antwi, Donkor, Krakue and Partners. These are the consultants for the Boankra Inland Port Project, the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project (KLERP) and the Tamale Water Project. All these projects are at a standstill presently.

The people of Ghana would like to know from the consultants the status of these projects, that is percentage of work done, work outstanding and how much has been spent on these projects to date.

By the way what has happened to young, Master Kyeremanteng, son of a Mr. Kyeremanteng who was arrested attempting to export cocaine through AFGO by security officers?

Ghana Palaver would like to go interactive on this subject of the economic rapists.

Do you know of any NPP Government or party official whose actions and activities amount to a rape of the Ghanaian economy? Do not hesitate. Send your story by mail, e-mail, phone or fax to the Editor of the Ghana Palaver. See our back page for details of the contact addresses and numbers.

We shall overcome.