*...EOCO’s Investigations Into NPP’s Dirty Deals *

The Herald can authoritatively report that Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, former Chief of Staff and Dr. Anthony Akoto -Osei also a former Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, all in the erstwhile government of ex-President John Agyekum Kufour, contrived and stole documents and files with records of that government’s disbursement of various funds that it (the Kufuor’s administration) took charge of.

Prominent among them is the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) files which had the records of the in-flows of monies and how they were disbursed during Kufuor’s time in office.

The Herald gathered that the Economic and Organized Crimes Office’s (EOCO) attempt at reaching for the HIPC files, containing imperative financial records of the Kufuor administration, at the Chief of Staff’s office hit a snag.

A lady officer, upon interrogation, told the officials of the EOCO that she was instructed at the latter stage of the Kufuor’s administration by Dr. Osei to hand over the HIPC files to two gentlemen (names withheld now) to be submitted to Mr. Mpiani

The two gentlemen, also upon interrogation conceded having been assigned that duty, which they carried out dutifully. However, when Dr.Osei and Mr. Mpiani were questioned about the whereabouts of the files by the EOCO, they vehemently denied ever making such orders and taking delivery of any documents or files.

The Herald learnt that four files which had records on how the State funds were expended, could not be traced, and therefore there is no documentation as to how the funds were used.

Corroborating this revelation, Deputy Minister for Information, Mr. Okudjeto Ablakwa,last Saturday, speaking on Joy Fm ‘s news analysis programme, News File, disclosed that the Mills’ National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, upon assumption of office, found to its dismay that the Chief of Staff’s office was ransacked of all important documents , thereby causing a break in continuation of financial and administrative processes, pertinent to good governance, from the Kufuor government.

“Yes , I want to put that on record, that in fact the Chief of Staff’s office has no single file left,” Mr. Ablakwa asserted.

Obviously, the files were stolen in order not to not leave any traces of misappropriation of funds which would demand questioning of the officers and Ministers involved.

Falling short of mentioning names of the culprits, Mr. Ablakwa promised that; “in the coming days, there would be a very interesting case which we should watch out for’’

Watchers of the political landscape have been critical of the inability of the Mills’ government to prove it’s claims that the Kufuor administration was corrupt and stole funds belonging to the State.

This inability has emboldened the leadership of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to rather label the Mills’ administration of unprecedented corruption, using the payment of the Woyome judgment debt as evidence.