The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Akufo-Addo has said the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has not released any report implicating the Chief Executive of the Tema Municipal Assembly (TMA), Mr. Evans Ashong-Narh and two others for causing financial loss to the state to the tune of ?1.2 billion.

Speaking to the ADM in an exclusive interview on Tuesday after opening a one-day conference on Corporate Governance in Accra he said, “The Graphic report is a total falsehood.” Graphic on Monday carried a story on its front-page stating that the TMA boss and two others had been cited by the SFO for causing financial loss to the state through the award of the Kpone Landfill Site Project and others. The Graphic story had alleged that “A report on investigations conducted by the SFO into the award of the contracts named the other two officials of the TMA involved in the deal as Alhaji IMT Huseini, Co-ordinating Director and Mr. Samuel Aryee, the Finance Officer.”

Mr. Ashong-Narh himself is reported to have denied any wrong-doing in the award of the contracts at a stakeholders forum in Ashaiman. He is reported to have described the purported report as “baseless”. Earlier at the conference Nana Akufo-Addo said a more transparent and balanced Public Procurement Bill would soon be present to Parliament for consideration. Nana Akufo-Addo said the bill is aimed at curbing corruption which exists in the process of public procurement. The conference which was attended by stakeholders in the business sector, the private and public sectors and anti-corruption agencies was under the theme, “Fighting Corruption with Effective Corporate Governance”.

It was organised by the African Capital Markets Forum (ACMF) and sponsored by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE USA). He called on companies to maintain a high level of accountability to shareholders to ensure investor confidence. He and another thirty would be engaged soon. He said before the end of next year each region would have a Fast Track High Court. Six more would be established in Accra, two in Tema and four in Kumasi. He said a well functioning legal system would promote business growth.