The Dispatch says it can confirm that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) government of President John Agyekum Kufuor, has stopped the divestiture of GIHOC Distilleries Company Limited, Mim-Timber Company Limited (MTCL) and the uncompleted State Hotels Training School.

Ex-President Jerry John Rawlings was reported in the January 26 - February 1, 2001 issue to have just before the January 7 handover authorised the divestiture of the said state-owned entities.

GIHOC had been sold to a British company, Grandexport Limited, at 4.5 billion cedis for 65 per cent of the equity. Scanstyle Mim Limited (SML) bought MTCL for $4 million, plus $300,000 and 300 million cedis granted to MTCL as financial assistance.

The Africa Institute of Journalism and Communications (AIJC) won the bid for the uncompleted State Hotels Training School for 1.1 billion cedis.

Among the first tasks of the acting Executive Secretary of the Divestiture implementation Committee (DIC), Mr Benson Poku- Adjei, is as per the directives of President Kufuor, to refund all monies paid by the companies that won the bid.

As at Monday, the SML had paid the required 10 per cent of the combined purchase consideration, a non-refundable commitment fee.

The SML is also reported to have paid the second instalment (with a February 15, 2001 deadline) of 40 per cent of the combined purchase consideration. SML's total amount to be refunded is about $2.17 million.

Grandexport Limited is reported to have paid Four Hundred and Fifty Million Cedis, being 10 per cent of the purchase consideration of 4.5 billion cedis.

The paper's sources could not however indicate how much the AIJC had paid for the Training School.