‘The Herald’ Threatened

One of the actors involved in the criminal case in which the New Patriotic Party (NPP) flagbearer is cited for nepotism with US$2.44million workers’ pension money due to the role played by his cousin and campaign funds manager, Ken Ofori-Atta, has threatened The Herald with a court action.

“If you dare publish anything on their report, I will sue you for contempt of court, threatened Mr. Ekow Awoonor of Awoonor Law Consultancy refusing to say anything further on the issue.

The Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) invested US$2.244 million of workers’ contribution into a housing project, proposed by Nana Akufo-Addo’s cousin, which is yet to be realized since a decade after the project was planned, and the money doled out for its execution.

Nana Akufo-Addo, who was ex-President John Kufuor’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, when the damning investigation and forensic report was instituted and released in 2002, was hit by accusation that he had refused to put his cousin on trial, but had dragged persons like Tsatsu Tsikata, Dan Abodakpi, Ibrahim Adams, Kwame Peprah, George Sipah Yankey, Victor Selormey who served in the Rawlings regime to court for having willfully caused financial loss to the state.

Mr. Awoonor, a lawyer, according to the forensic report, was to be criminally prosecuted together with Mr. Ofori-Atta of Databank and Messrs. Charles Asare, former Director-General of SSNIT and Asiedu Gyamfi, ex-Acting Head of Investments for “gross display of incompetence and blatantly subordinating SSNIT interest in the transaction to those of Databank, Awoonor Law Consultancy and Enterprise Insurance Company.”

He told The Herald that he had for the past eight years been in court with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), now the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) over their findings, insisting that the matter was subjudice, hence he was unable to answer questions on why the “Obotan Garden of Eden” housing project never saw daylight over a decade, after US$2.44 million was paid for its execution.

Mr. Awoonor’s claim however, runs contrary to what an officer of EOCO told The Herald in a telephone call that “no document or docket has been sighted” on the US$2.244 million “Obotan” scandal almost four years since the change of administration from that of Kufuor to Mills.

Mr. Awoonor’s Awoonor Law Consultancy, Ken Ofori-Atta’s Databank and Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) were alleged to have defrauded the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) of US$2.244million by presenting a phone housing project deal, in the late 1990s.

Databank Financial Service, which the Forensic Report heavily indicted for defrauding SSNIT, some years later, became the money bag for Nana Addo’s 2008 election campaign, according to Arthur Kennedy’s book, “Chasing The Elephant Into The Bush: The Politics Of Complacency”.

The Herald’s investigation began following a call by the pro-NPP group, Alliance for Accountable Governance (AFAG), for the immediate freezing of the assets of Ibrahim Mahama, brother of President John Mahama and owner of Engineers and Planners Company (E&P), while investigations are conducted into a loan he contracted from Merchant Bank, in which SSNIT has a stake.

As The Herald combs around in search of a copy of the Forensic Report, which appears to have vanished into thin air, archival materials retrieved from the defunct “Gye Nyame Concord” owned by Mr. Alfred Ogbame, one of the numerous journalists, including Mr. Dominic Jale, formerly of the “Ghanaian Chronicle” who delved into the scam, quoting the said Forensic Report stated that the auditors recommended the trial of the actors involved in the “Obotan” deal in their report on the financial audit of SSNIT.

The journalists, at the time, quoted portions of the report as asking for the prosecution of Messrs. Databank Financial Services, Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC), and Awoonor Law Consultancy for “false presentation of information” to deceive SSNIT into the joint venture project.

Additionally, the auditors had recommended that Mr. Asare, former Director General of SSNIT and Asiedu Gyamfi, ex-Acting Head of Investments should be put on trial for reckless investments of SSNIT funds and for “gross display of incompetence and blatantly subordinating SSNIT interest in the transaction to those of Databank, Awoonor Law Consultancy and Enterprise Insurance Company.”

According to the auditors, Databank, EIC and Awoonor Law Consultancy should be prosecuted for presenting false information on the “Obotan” project and enticing SSNIT to release money for Obotan Developers Company at a time the company did not exist and “which as at now does not have a registered office.”

The auditors also argued that the trio presented incorrect information to suggest that EIC had paid $1.8 million for its 45 per cent shares in the ‘ghost’ company, “when in actual fact EIC as at now had not contributed 1 cent towards the project.”

They also recommended that SSNIT should take over the house for the project at the cost of $1.650 million instead of the excess payment for part-ownership at the cost of $2.244 million that it paid, while EIC, Databank and Awoonor Law Consultancy should be made to refund the difference of $594,000 between the overpaid and the real amount that should have been paid to SSNIT.

The conclusion of the auditors was that the $2.244 million paid by SSNIT was more than enough to pay for the property that was to be developed in a joint venture, into a blue chip residential facility along the Independence and Osu avenues in Accra, not far from the controversial Mormon building that was springing up along the same area.

“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 allocated just 55 per cent shareholding and others who did not pay a dime i.e. Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) and Social Security bank Investments (SSB) were allocated 42.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively,” said the report.

Databank and EIC are partly owned by Mr. Ken Ofori-Atta, a key player and originator of the Obotan deal, while the other key brain behind the project that never was, is Mr. Ekow Awoonor, who also largely owns Awoonor Law Consultancy.

According to the auditors, attempts to conduct an audit into Obotan Developers Limited was fiercely resisted by the then SSNIT Acting Head of Investments, Mr. Asiedu Gyamfi.

The Obotan “Garden of Eden” deal began with an undated participation memo from Databank in 1998 to Mr Charles Asare, to be followed days later by another letter from Mr. Dan Seddoh, Financial Controller of EIC, inviting SSNIT to invest in the blue chip real estate project off the swanky, upmarket Independence and Osu avenues here in Accra.

In the letter titled “RE: INVITATION FOR SSNIT INVESTMENT PARTICIPATION IN INDEPENDENCE AVENUE COMMUNITY RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT,” Seddoh wrote:

We would like to take this opportunity to invite SSNIT to participate in a unique real estate development project in the heart of the new business and financial district on Independence Avenue in Accra. The site is located on Independence Avenue opposite Cal Merchant Bank and on Osu Avenue opposite Taysec Gardens.

The project concept is centered on preserving and re-designing an antebellum type mansion, currently housing a Chief Executive Officer, as a well appointed and managed club house. Features of the club house will include:

Limited annual subscription; Subscription for top CEOs and their families; Restaurant, Swimming pool, sauna, massage, games room; Business services— typing, telephone and fax, secretarial and courier services, etc;

Rental business offices for short-term; and Exclusive meeting and dining rooms. There will be a constellation of 29 home units consisting of: Three executive 4-bedroom detached houses; three two-bedroom, 1.5 storey chalets; eleven three-bedroom two-storey town houses; and Four three-storey apartment complexes with 12 three bedroom apartments…”

Seddoh has since told the auditors, according to the Forensic Review 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 Company Limited”.