Recent publications by a section of the media putting Prof. Francis Dodoo, the Acting Board Chairman of the Export Development & Investment Fund, EDIF, in bad light is a red-herring to hoodwink Ghanaians from getting to know the rot he has uncovered in the organization since he was appointed by President Mills to the position, investigations by the Daily Post reveals.

The board Chairman’s uncovering of acts smacking of conflict of interest and sheer criminality by some board members has seen three of the (board) members interdicted and one other resigning.

Intel picked up by this paper reveals that soon after taking over as the Board Chairman, Prof. Dodoo decided to acquaint himself with the operations of the organization.

While doing so, he stumbled on startling information that led him to conduct investigations into the activities of the board.

The Board Chairman’s investigations revealed that on the 17th of March 2011, the Board met to approve a list of 38 mango farms in Brong-Ahafo, Northern, Upper West and Upper East regions to benefit from EDIF’s financial support for the 2011 financial year.

The meeting was chaired by Nana Yeboa Kodie Asare II, (a representative of the Private Enterprises Foundation (PEF) on the Board.

It was later discovered that earlier, on March 4, 2011, the then Ag. Chief Executive, Agyabeng Antwi-Agyei, not only wrote to the 38 farms informing them that the board had approved a recoverable facility to support their production of exotic mango for airport but caused various sums of money to be paid to the farms/ companies (before the matter came before the Board).

When queried, the Ag. Chief Executive told the Board that it was the former Board Chairman, Peter Illiasu who asked him to issue the award letters. But in a letter to the Board, Mr. Illiasu denied giving any such verbal approval, insisting that such an approval can only be given by the Board and not him, as an individual.

By his conduct, theAg. Chief Executive usurped the authority of the Boardin writing to the farms/ companies and lying that the Boardhad approved such facilities when in actual fact, it had not yet met to discuss or give such an approval.

Further investigations established thatcontrary to claims by the Ag. Chief Executive as well as the Director of Operations and the Director of Audit, two of the 38 farms, Alliance Farms and Abotare-Ye Farms, are not located in the Brong Ahafo region, but rather in the Ashanti region. While both farms are located in the Ashanti Regional town of Bosomkyekye, where Board Member Nana Yeboa Kodie Asare II comes from, the EDIF documents presented to the Board by the Ag. Chief Executive listed Abotare-Ye Farms as located in Bosom in the Brong Ahafo Region and Alliance Farms in Kyere also in the Brong Ahafo region. Interestingly, the letterhead of Alliance Farms shows that it is located in the Ashanti Region. To make matters worse, it was discovered that Nana Yeboa Kodie Asare II, who presided over the March 17, 2011 Board meeting, has considerable interest in one of the farms, Alliance Farms.

Even worse is the fact that Alliance Farms, according to documents from the Registrar General’s Department, was not a registered company as at March 4, 2011 when the Ag. Chief Executive gave them a letter awarding them GH¢201,660.00 (¢2,016,600,000) for their 100 Acre Mango farm. Archival research conducted at the Registrar Generals Department revealed that Alliance Farms Limited was incorporated on March 15, 2011, and a certificate to commence business issued on March 16, 2011.

Clearly, Nana Yeboa Kodie Asare II has been sighted in a Conflict of Interest situation, because as at the time he was presiding over the March 17, 2011 Board meeting, he was aware that a business/ company in which he had interest was among those been considered, but he did not declare that interest to other members. He told the Board later that he has been appointed a Director of Alliance Farms, but documents show that he is actually the majority shareholder of Alliance Farms (45,000 shares in his private name, Benjamin Kwadwo Addae. The other shareholder is Nana Kwabena Ofori who has 5,000 shares)

The controversy over the above led to the interdiction of the Ag. Chief Executive, the Director of Operations and the Director of Audit as well as Nana Yeboa Kodie Asare II’s resignation from the Board in a letter to President Mills dated 26th September, 2011 attached to another letter to the Board Chairman dated 27th September 2011..

He has since then informed the Board that another Board member, representing the private sector, Ernest Mintah also engaged in a conflict of interest situation when the company he works for, Ghana Leasing, supplied EDIF with some accessories. The Board is investigating the allegation.