General News of Wednesday, 4 December 2002

Source: Dispatch

Ex-Minister Dares NPP Government

.....Where is the proof?
The former Minister of Finance, Kwame Peprah has dared the New Patriotic Party government of President Kufuor to prove that he is the Director of Gallen Company, the single purpose company that was created solely to lease the Gulfstream Presidential jet to Ghana. He also challenged the government to show how the price of the jet was estimated at a $7 million and that the total cost of the five-year lease will be about $23 million.

He said the jet initially cost $13.7 million, but the amount rose to almost $16.5 million after modifications, training of personnel and acquisition of spare parts.

The former Finance Minister said the total cost of the five-year lease was between $19 and $20 million and not $23 million as alleged by government. Mr Peprah was reacting to comments by Finance Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo that the NDC government and particularly Prof Mills had no right to call for his resignation over the IFC loan since an agreement they signed on the Gulfstream presidential jet was in bad faith. The Finance Minister also noted that government was expected to pay $23 million instead of $7 million for the jet.
But Mr Peprah wondered how the jet transaction could be compared to the IFC loan. "Unlike the IFC loan, we know that HSBC, the largest UK bank is behind Gallen and unlike the elusive $1 billion which is the object of the IFC loan, the Gallen lease is a Gulfstream Presidential jet sitting at the Air Force Station in Accra", he added.