The menace of corruption in public office, many have said, is the greatest challenge to Ghana’s developmental process.
The United Nations (UN) estimates that the country loses nearly $2.6 billion every year to corruption in government agencies.
One of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s major campaign points prior to the 2016 elections was to deal
Read full article.with corruption ruthlessly in his government, but it appears the fight has been lost in the seven years of him being in power.
Government officials who have served in Akufo-Addo’s government, including those he appointed, have made wild allegations of corruption, some of which have been 'dealt' with while others have been treated with silence.
Here are some ex-public officials who have made wild allegations of corruption in the Akufo-Addo government:
Former Minister for Energy Boakye Agyarko:
The former Minister for Energy, Boakye Agyarko, is one of the former appointees of Akufo-Addo who has made allegations of corruption in his government in the energy sector.
Agyarko, a former New Patriotic Party flagbearer hopeful, made allegations of corruption in the re-negotiation of the 250 Megawatts Ameri Power Plant when he was the Minister for Energy.
According to a news report by energynewsafrica.com, Boakye Agyarko in an interview on Kumasi-based Asanteman FM, alleged that New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, re-negotiated the Ameri deal without the consent of the committee set up by the government to work on the deal.
He added that when he confronted Gabby on the matter, he told him to be quiet because President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was already in the know of the steps he (Gabby) had taken.
He narrated that he was on a flight to the United States of America when Gabby called him, lamenting about not being able to reach him.
“I told him I was onboard a flight travelling. Then he (Gabby) told me that he was sending me a document via email so I should check.
“When I arrived safely and went to my hotel room, I opened my email address and saw the document. To my surprise, Gabby had, on the blind side of the Committee set up and approved by the President to renegotiate with Ameri Energy Group, contracted a law firm to engage Ameri Energy Group and completed their negotiation and recommended a certain company to operate the Ameri Power Plant and extended the contract to 20 years.
“I sent Gabby an email and asked him what authority he had to do that. And I told him Cabinet has given specific instructions to follow and his response was what makes me think that my Boss (President Akufo-Addo) doesn’t know about what he has done…so I kept quiet,” he is quoted to have said by energynewsafrica.com.
The former energy minister said that when he spoke to President Akufo-Addo on the matter, the president asked him whether there was something wrong with what Gabby did.
Boakye Agyarko said that he told the president that, “the authority to renegotiate the terms of the Ameri Power Plant doesn’t lie in the hands of Gabby and that the proposal the firm he contracted made had violated all the Cabinet instructions and extended the contract to 20 years.”
Agyarko added that Akufo-Addo agreed with his reasoning but went ahead and asked him to forward the deal Gabby had negotiated to the committee that was set up to renegotiate the deal.
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Former Science and Technology Minister Prof Frimpong-Boateng:
The former Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Prof Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng, has made several accusations of corruption in the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo government, including the allegation that the government is protecting illegal miners (galamseyers) operating in Ghana.
In a recent interview with the AFRICAWATCH magazine, Prof Frimpong also said that he rejected a $5 million bribe to approve a judgment debt of over $88 million to the private company, Apex Pollution Company Limited.
He added that it was a government official who decided to engage the company in the payment of the judgement debt even though the company had done no work.
“Sometime in July 2020, when I was at the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation, I received a letter from the Ministry of Finance, requesting my approval for the payment of a judgment debt to the tune of US$88,247,246.63, please let me repeat it, US$88,247,246.63, to Apex Pollution Control Company. I could not believe my eyes. It had a lot of red flags. The Ministry of Environment had signed an agreement with the company in 2014 to carry out monitoring of vehicle emissions, but the project was not implemented at all.
“The company claimed it invested $6,613,520.63 in the project and sought a judgment debt. Somebody somewhere decided to engage the company in arbitration for the government, and in addition to its alleged initial investment of $6,613,520.63, offered the company $20,006,226 for a return on investment and $61,627,500 for the loss of income for 13 years. And this came up to a whopping $88,247,246.63,” he is quoted to have said in the October/November 2023 edition of the AFRICAWATCH magazine.
He added, “The Apex Pollution Control Company was going to get about $82 million for doing no work. So shocking! To me, there were several irregularities about it. I could see that a huge scandal was staring us right in the face. And I didn’t want to be part of it”.
The former science and technology minister further stated that he was told that the former Minister of State (in-charge of finance), Charles Adu Boahene, was likely behind the move when he confronted the Minister for Finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, on the matter.
“The whole thing was too shady. I confronted Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta about it and he told me Charles Adu Boahen, the then deputy minister of finance was probably behind it. Soon after some people from Apex Pollution Control Company came to see me in my office and offered me a US$ 5 million bribe to approve the judgment debt for them. I rejected it and told them to disappear from my office,” he added.
Former Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu:
The first Special Prosecutor of Ghana, Martin Amidu, resigned on the back of corruption allegations in the Agyapa Royalties deal.
In his letter of resignation, Martin Amidu, a former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, painted a picture of President Akufo-Addo's act of desperation to cover up the involvement of Ken Ofori-Atta's Databank and Gabby Asare Otchere Darko's African Legal Associate.
He alleged that the attempt to cover up the corruption, bid-rigging, nepotism, conflict of interest and favouritism in the deal by President Akufo-Addo made the president send a copy of the corruption risk assessment report he (Amidu) wrote on the Agyapa deal, which was only privy to him, to Ken and Gabby.
The former attorney general said that the president handed over the response by Gabby and Ofori-Atta to be included in his report, but he turned it down, setting the stage for a head-on collision with the president, who doesn't punish wrongdoings of his appointees.
"The one condition upon which I accepted to be nominated as the Special Prosecutor when you invited me to your Office on 10th January 2018 was your firm promise to me that you will respect and ensure same by your Government for my independence and freedom of action as the Special Prosecutor," Martin Amidu said adding, "The events of November 12 removed the only protection I had for carrying out the anti-corruption assessment on the Agyapa transaction..."
He added: "More importantly, Your Excellency was acting as a judge in your own court in usurping my functions to take any independent follow-up actions on the anti-corruption assessment report when you knew from my 13-page letter of 16 October 2020, conveying the conclusions and observations of the anti-corruption assessment report to you that negative anti-corruption assessment had been made against the conduct of your office in the procedure adopted in granting the Executive Approval dated 24 March 2020 and your assent of the Minerals Income Investment (Amendment) Act, 2020 (Act 1024) on 27 August 2020 intended to retroactively impact the parliamentary approval of the transactions document granted on 14 August 2020."
Former Auditor-General Daniel Domelevo
Daniel Yao Domelevo, the former Auditor-General, an appointee of former President John Dramani Mahama, who served in the first two years of the Akufo-Addo government, made corruption allegations against some of his appointees.
Domelevo was asked to proceed on leave in 2020 by the president after he (Domelevo) surcharged Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the then Senior Minister, for alleged financial infractions he had committed.
Domelevo claimed that the current Senior Advisor to the president, Osafo-Maafo, when he was Senior Minister, colluded with the Finance Ministry to pay UK firm, Kroll and Associates Limited, US$1 million for no evidence of work done.
However, the acting Auditor-General(A-G), Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu, a day after Daniel Domelevo began his 167 days ‘forced’ leave, cleared Osafo-Maafo of any wrongdoing.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday, May 31, 2023, ruled that President Akufo-Addo’s directive for Domelevo to proceed on leave was "unconstitutional and null and void".
Former Chairman of National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) Prof Stephen Adei:
Prof Stephen Adei, a former Director-General and Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, in a recent interview with TV3, bemoaned the issue of corruption in the awarding of contracts for projects including roads in the Akufo-Addo government.
He alleged that government officials demand money before assigning road contracts.
He said that the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, should be ashamed of himself if he is aware of the shady deals going on in his government.
“This road contract would be given to you, provided you put one million upfront, not after you have gotten the money. This is what Akufo-Addo must be thinking about and if he knows about it, he must be ashamed.
“That now his people demand from you a certain amount before you would be considered for a job. Why? Because when they get it, whether the government pays you or not they have gotten their money. It is as if people are in a hurry to loot the country before the end of Akufo-Addo’s term,” he said.
Prof Adei indicated that President Akufo-Addo has dashed the hopes of Ghanaians who had the hope that he was going to really transform the country.
The former chairman of the NDPC also indicated that what gets to him the most is “the corruption" and "the arrogance" in government.
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