External Solicitor Fingered

It has been uncovered that the state-owned National Lotteries Authority (NLA), which is supposed to be a money machine for the national kitty, is riddled with financial malfeasance, insider-trading, conflict of interest and abuse of office.

The National Lottery Authority was established by an Act of Parliament to regulate the lotteries sector of Ghana and equally run lotteries in Ghana. However, it appears some members of the board as well as a number of senior management members prefer to pursue their parochial interest and rake in ill-gotten wealth.

Overwhelming evidence available to The National Forum has revealed that Mr. Kojo Graham, a former board member of the NLA who is currently the external solicitor and Chairman of the Tender entity committee of the Authority used and abused his position to circumvent the procurement act in the award of a sole sourced contract between the NLA and LOTS SERVICES.

Mr. Graham, a seasoned lawyer who is supposed to know better is a director of LOTS Services, the company which provides and manages the NLA platform and the servicing of its equipment, raising serious issues of conflict of interest.

It has emerged that the LOTS SERVICES contract with the NLA was procured at a time Mr. Graham was a board member, an external solicitor and the chairman of the Tender entity committee.

There is also evidence to show how he compromised himself and circumvented the procurement laws to avoid laid down procedures, which would have adequately addressed integrity issues of the company.

In several email conversations between Mr. Graham and his business partners in February 2012, he revealed how the LOTS-NLA deal was deliberately structured to avoid due process.

Notwithstanding all these, he continues to serve as the external solicitor of the NLA, raking in money from the national lotteries for his company and partners As a sequel to the contract, Mr. Graham is said to have provided privileged insider information to his business partners, Deji Enwezor- a Nigerian representing STPL and one Sujit– an Indian representing SKILROCK. This act of connivance with foreigners to win the contract is not only a slap in the face of the Public Procurement Act (ACT 624) and Ghanaians but also a stab in the back of the Head of state who gave him the opportunity to serve the nation.

The paper is convinced after painstaking investigations that, the forensic investigation done by the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) was only limited to one area of the rot, the manipulation of the IT system of the NLA.

The investigations did not cover acts of conflict of interest and fraudulent misrepresentation by a board member with the connivance of some other officers of the Authority and blessed by the then Board chairman, Mr. Kojo Andah. This collusion led to the NLA entering into a contract with LOTS Services, a service provider of the NLA after the abrogation of the NLA-Simnet contract. Mr. Graham is said to have personally assisted his partners in crime to acquire VAT and TAX IDENTIFICATION NUMBERS for onward transfer to the Ghana Investment Promotion Center (GIPC) in order for the repatriation of their profits according to the GIPC Act of 1994.

This paper believes that fresh investigations must commence into the conduct of Mr. Kojo Graham, Madam Afumwaa Bruce- a senior staff member of the NLA and David Lamptey, a former Director in charge of Legal issues and now Director in-charge of Commercial issues at NLA including Mr Kojo Andah former Director-General of the NLA and the current Director- General of the NLA Brigadier General Martin Ahiaglo who knowing all of these acts of corruption against the very institution he heads, has refused to even investigate or refer the matter to the right authorities.

It would be recalled that the media in 2013, published a number of stories bordering on allegations of fraud and various acts of corruption within the NLA.

This led to the dissolution of the NLA board by the president and a forensic audit conducted by EOCO.

In the process, some innocent junior staff of the NLA were sacrificed for the sins of some board members.

“If president John Mahama is truly committed to fighting corruption as he easily makes Ghanaians believe at the least opportunity, he has the chance now to show in deed and not in rhetoric and save Mother Ghana from these vampires who have chosen to fix their long hungry teeth to the purse of our Nation and suck it dry the nation dry,” an anti-corruption crusader stated.