By Gifty Arthur

Some of the major actors in the sale of Drillship, Discoverer 511, a property of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) in July 2001, may have been questioned by the Judgment Debts Commission, but there are still some salient questions still lingering on and until such questions are asked, Ghanaians may not get clearer the picture of the entire deal.

So far, apart from the various government institutions that have appeared to give evidence, the then Minister of Energy, Albert Kan Dapaah and his Deputy Kwabena Tahir Hammond, as well as, former GNPC boss, Tsatsu Tsikata, have all given various accounts, but more questions keep popping up.

Just last week, a former Acting High Commissioner to the United Kingdom (UK), Chris Kpodo, who was named by the Adansi Asokwa Member of Parliament (MP), Mr. Hammond as having received the US$3.5 million Dollar banker’s draft being the remainder of US$24 million, indeed confirmed when he appeared at the Commission’s sitting, but not without an explanation.

Mr. Kpodo, who was also ex-Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, under late President Mills told the Commission presided over Justice Apau that even though he could confirm that he received the cheque, he added that he only signed the sales agreement of the drill ship under circumstances he described as “bizarre”.

Mr. Kpodo explained that he got a call from the then Attorney General, Nana Akufo-Addo, to go to a certain address and witness the signing of the sales agreement and so sent an officer to sign on his behalf, because he was on an assignment, but he was refused until he personally went there. Even that he did not get the opportunity to look into the document before signing.

The evidence by Mr. Kpodo, raises serious questions as to what might have transpired during the transaction period, as it is becoming evidently clear by the various accounts that politicians totally hijacked the entire process leaving out officials of GNPC and others who may have had the requisite negotiation skills to handle the issue.

Mr. Kpodo, was not part of the transaction, but was only called on telephone and ordered to append a signature to an already hatched deal.

Meanwhile, questions are also being raised about the justification for the sale of the drillship in the first place, notwithstanding the so-called debt owed French Bank Societe Generale. Why Nana Akufo-Addo, refused to pursue the legal case although GNPC lawyers, Bindman and Partners had insisted they had a winnable case?

Why Constant and Constant, a law firm hired by Mr. Hammond on behalf of government of Ghana, presented the US$3.5 million cheque to be paid into government of Ghana coffers, but the cheque of the buyers is yet to be seen to determine exactly how much the state ship was sold to them.

There is also an impending question as to why the then Finance Minister, Osafo Marfo, disobeyed the law by directing that the $3.5 million be paid into a special collection accounts at the Ghana International Bank in London, when it was supposed to have been paid into a GNPC account?

There are also nagging questions about how the money was disbursed as earlier claims by Editor-in Chief of the New Crusading Guide, Kweku Baako, that the money was used to pay the salaries of officials of the High Commission has turned out to be false. Mr. Kpodo during his testimony rejected claims that the amount was used to pay staff at the High Commission in London.

Again Mr. Baako is now claiming the money was used to pay salaries of GNPC officials, as well as, a debt owned by the defunct Ghana Airways.

Dr. Gheysika Agambilla, a former Deputy Finance Minister, has denied his membership of a Committee set up by Kan-Dapaah and reported to ex-President John Kufuor, as having negotiated US$12 to US$14 million to Societe Generale with Nick Mends, Vice-President in-charge of Commodities in the New York.

There are even doubts whether the said Nick Mends really exist. Madam Gloria Akuffo, said to be a member of that Committee chaired by KT Hammond, is yet to speak on the issue, especially whether or not she was part of the said Committee.