…To refuse visa to top government officials

MR. KOJO Quainoo, a deputy director of Operations of the Alliance for Accountable
Governance, (AFAG) says the decision taken by the US Embassy in respect of refusal
of visas to two top Ghanaian Government Officials was in the right direction.
According to Quainoo the two government officials deserved the treatment meted
out to them in the face of the decision of the Government of which they were
part, to allegedly frustrate America Investors.
“If this Government has decided to frustrate America Investors in this country, and
the key people who are behind these frustrations are being refused entry to the USA,
then it is right” the AFAG Operations director told TRUTH in an electronic
mail.
He explained his position in the roles and purposes of establishing
diplomatic missions: the role to protect in the receiving State the interests of
the sending State and of its nationals, within the limits permitted by international
law; negotiating with the Government of the receiving State as directed by the
sending State; ascertaining by lawful means conditions and developments in the
receiving State, and reporting thereon to the Government of the sending State;
promoting friendly relations between the sending State and the receiving State, and
developing their economic, cultural and scientific relations.
Following the seeming breach of the roles establishing such diplomatic
missions, Quainoo said the conduct of the NDC Government is a ‘’targeted malice and
a malicious mischief’’ purported at crippling US Investors in this country” and
urged the US Government not to subscribe to the whims and caprices of the NDC
government, which is mostly anti-US.
Referring to the claims by the two officials that their ordeal was a
function of the Kosmos Energy and Exxonmobil deal, the AFAG director indicated that
even if that was the case, it was because the NDC Government had not treated
Kosmos and Exxonmobil fairly.
According to Quainoo, the government had actually frustrated them and explained that
in the agreement with Ghana Government, GNPC and Kosmos Energy, it is stated that if
Kosmos wants to sell its stake, it needs the consent of the Government, and the
Government should not deny or delay the process unnecessarily.
The agreement according to Quainoo further stated that the Company willing to
buy should be technically and financially sound for which reason Kosmos engaged no
other company than the richest oil company in the world, Exxonmobil because they
are technically and financially better than any other oil company in the world.
Quainoo mentioned that at a meeting of Exxonmobil and Kosmos Energy Officials and
some officials from GNPC and the Energy ministry the investors were treated with
contempt and that there is every indication that the Ghanaian officials, who
seemed naïve, were under instructions from above and of their bosses.
Deputy Director Quainoo also cited an instance where another oil company from
Norway, ACER AKA, were allegedly maltreated by the Energy minister, Dr. Oteng Adjei
and subsequently had their contract abrogated for spurious reasons.
Quainoo stated that the US embassy is here to protect the interests of its
nationals, within the limits permitted by international law. “The US Investors are
clean, but the fact of the matter is, some of the NDC Government Officials are
anti-US and that the US Government does not need the brain of a rocket scientist to
fathom this,” he said.
He said if there is anybody who has committed a crime or done something repugnant
and callous, then it is the Ghana Government because “the silence of the President
is a tacit endorsement of the way they (NDC) are treating US Investors.