?Investigators are piecing together pieces of information that suggest strongly that there could be a linkage between the aborted ?IFC? US$1 billion of 2002 and the current US$300 million loan recently approved by Parliament.

There is also a very strong scent of A South African connection, though the connection is to South Africans of Chinese origin than of Afrikaner or black South Africans. Certainly the chronology of events and the speed, with which the whole ?deal? was set up as detailed below makes the CNT loan very, very suspect. Then there is what appears to have been a slip in the summary of the Feasibility Study on the Garment Village Project that was submitted alongside the Loan Agreement to the Finance Committee of Parliament where reference is made to a ?Chinese-South African Friendship Industrial Development (PTY) Ltd, the only time in the entire Loan documentation that reference is made to this entity.

The Chronology

26th November 2002; Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, announces in Parliament that ?it will be in the national interest NOT to pursue further discussions and negotiations in respect of the IFC loan.? In other words, the loan is aborted.

May 2003 (6 months later): A company called China New Techiniques Construction and Investment Ltd. (CNTCI) is formed in London.

Between May and November 2003; A Company called China New Techniques Group (Holdings) Ltd. (CNT) is formed in Hong Kong.

31st October 2003; Ghana Palaver publishes an intelligence report it has received that President Kufour and his team have signed a US$2.5 billion deal with a group of drug-dealing Chinese businessmen in South Africa.

12th November 2003; The Government of Ghana, represented by Minister of Finance Yaw Osafo-Maafo and Minister of Trade, Industry and PSI, Alan Kyeremanteng, sign a Memorandum of Understand (MOU) to raise a very low interest loan of US$200 million to finance infrastructural and other projects in the country. The MOU requires that the Bank of Ghana should issue a Guarantee and stipulates that the projects will be undertaken by CNTCI and its nominated Chinese companies.

4th March 2004; Four Minister, namely Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo, Roads and Transport Minister Dr Richard Anane, Ports, Harbours and Railways Minister Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Ekumfi, and Trade, Industry and PSI Minister Mr Alan Kyeremanteng, submit a memorandum to parliament in relation to this facility, but this time in the amount of US$300 million to finance infrastructural and other projects in the country. The attached Loan Agreement makes no reference to the MOU of 12th November 2003, makes no reference to the requirement of a Bank of Ghana Guarantee, and makes no reference to the fact that the projects are to be undertaken by CNTCI and its nominated companies.

11th March 2004; The Loan Agreement is referred to the Finance Committee of Parliament for consideration and report.

12th March 2004; Finance Committee recommends the loan for approval.

13th April 2004; Parliament, on recall to extend the state of emergency in Tamale and Yendi, gives approval for the Government to contract the loan of US$300 million.

The Suspicions

It is clear that hardly had the ink on the Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo?s statement aborting the ?IFC? scam loan dried than the NPP Government was about again putting together the ingredients of yet another private sector loan, most likely another scam, and most likely from the same source or sources. That the loan amount is US$300 million, the same as the first tranche of the aborted ?IFC? scam loan, gives credence to this conclusion.

That the US fax number of the London-based CNTCI, No. 00-1-309-409-6863, has been connected by our investigators to Professor Eddie Ayensu, the individual who allegedly put together the US$1 billion ?IFC? scam loan, is another indicator about the connection between the scam ?IFC? and the CNT.