General News of Saturday, 10 August 2013

Source: XYZ

GYEEDA saga: P.V. Obeng accused of conflict of interest

National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) Chairman P.V. Obeng has been accused by the Executive Director of policy group, Danquah Institute, Gabby Assare Otchere-Darko, of conflict of interest.

The NDPC chairman is a board member of Keta Salt Industrial Estates - owned by the AGAMS Group of companies whose Chairman Roland Agambire is the CEO of local IT giant, rlg, which is one of many the companies cited for corruption and financial malfeasance by a recent investigative report on the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Agency (GYEEDA) programme.

P.V. Obeng has been tasked by President John Mahama to review the investigative report presented to him recently.

Mr. Otchere-Darko wonders why P.V. Obeng took up the report review responsibility despite being a board member of a sister-company belonging to the AGAMS group.

According to Mr. Otchere-Darko, “if you have P.V. Obeng being a board member of a company owned by AGAMS Company and AGAMS Company is deeply involved in this case, then how can we trust P.V. Obeng?”

“It’s a conflict of interest, clearly”, Mr. Otchere-Darko asserted, adding that: “I’m raising a serious issue of principle”.

He wondered on Joy FM’s news analysis programme on Saturday, why the president would go ahead to appoint P.V. Obeng in that capacity, despite knowledge of his membership of a board of a company owned by the AGAMS group.