*And how Databank, Ken Ofori Atta, Ekow Awoonor and Charles Asare schemed workers of contributions

SOMEWHERE IN 1998, an undated memo from Data Bank Limited arrived at the desk of Mr. Charles Asare, Director-General of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT). Days later – December 10, 1998 - another letter signed by Mr. Dan Seddoh, Financial Controller of Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC), largely owned by Data Bank, went off to Pension House, Accra, as a follow-up to the earlier memo, inviting SSNIT to invest in a real estate project off the upmarket Independence and Osu avenues in Accra.

Soon, a deal that was later to rip ordinary workers of $2.244 million of their meagre pension contributions lodged with SSNIT had been negotiated and signed.

This was the beginning story of how SSNIT pumped workers’ money into the ghost Obotan Developers Limited, a company that did not exist at the time “and which as at now does not even have a registered office,” wrote auditors hired by the State to conduct a forensic review of SSNIT last year.

Presented to the Kufuor administration months ago, the forensic review reveals what it termed the ‘reckless investment of SSNIT funds’ over the phantom project.

So reckless was the investment that even after SSNIT pumped $2.244 million into the ghost Obotan Developers Company for its money to be then used to register the company, it did not receive, and had still not received any Share Certificate by the time the forensic audit was conducted last year.

More worrying is the fact that SSNIT paid the $2.244 million for a property that was purchased by Obotan Developers from CFAO for $1.650 million and re-sold to SSNIT after SSNIT’s own money had been used to purchase it.

“Indeed our independent investigations have revealed that the property was sold by CFAO to Obotan Developers for US$1, 650,000 even though the agreement covering it put the sales value at ?300, 000,000,” the auditors noted in their report.

Strangely, while SSNIT’s money, which was more than what should have been paid for the totality of the ghost project was used to register Obotan, EIC, with Data Bank as its majority shareholder, grabbed 42.5% (42,500) shares without paying a pesewa.

SSB Investments Limited, which had Mr Ekow Awoonor, the other key brain behind the deal apart from Data Bank’s Executive Chairman and the main brain, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, also grabbed 7.5% (7,500) shares for paying nothing.

“Thus in our estimation, SSNIT money was collected and used to pay for the property plus allowances, Commission and legal fees to so called promoters who were also members of the Company (OBOTAN). Thereafter SSNIT was just allocated 55% Share holding and others who did not contribute a dime i.e. Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) and Social Security Bank Investments (SSB) were allocated 42.5% and 2.5% respectively.”

The other shareholder, whose payment status was unresolved by press time, was the Home Finance Company (HFC), which had 7.5% (7,500) shares of the ghost company.

“I have no comment. So many of you are worrying me over this. I’ve nothing to say and you can quote if you like” Ekow Awoonor told this reporter when reached on phone Thursday.

Questions submitted to the head office of SSNIT earlier that same Thursday had not been answered by press time. Neither has Ken Ofori-Atta, the key brain behind the scheme called this reporter for his response despite a message left at his office Thursday afternoon, when he was reported to be at a board meeting. Efforts to reach him on his cell phone have since proved unsuccessful.

So murky was the Obotan scheme from the start that even though Data Bank was not a shareholder of Obotan, its Executive Chairman Ken Ofori Atta, had no worry writing on behalf of the independent, limited liability company on a Data Bank letterhead to request that shares for the non-existent company be paid into an escrow account at the EIC, located opposite the Barclays Bank headquarters on the High Street in Accra.

And even when SSNIT could have stopped the haemorrhage of the worker’s pension fund, it rather topped it up. As if wasting workers’ pension contributions was a passion, it doled out $44,000 (approximately ?3.8 billion at today’s exchange rate of ?8,700 to a dollar) out of the total payment of $2.244 million as brokerage fee to EIC when no brokerage work had been done, the forensic report noted

Again, the simple, basic business requirement of conducting due-diligence before such investments, was thrown overboard. “There are no records to show that any evaluation was conducted by SSNIT to assess the viability of Obotan before SSNIT entered into the Joint Venture. And the relatively short period of time within which the project idea got crystallised into a Joint Venture (December 10th 1998 to February 26th 1999) is quite discomforting,” the report noted.

Worst still, Obotan Developers, the auditors confirmed, had no office in the EIC building where it was supposed to have one. The forensic review quotes Mr. Dan Seddoh, who wrote the EIC letter of invitation to SSNIT as having said that “EIC did not and has still not paid money for its shares” and that “he is not aware of the Bankers and Bank Account of Obotan Developers Limited.”

Despite the non-payment for the shares of at least EIC and SSB Investment, the Board of directors of SSNIT okayed a decision to later buy more of the shares from the non-paid- up members.

To be continued…