It is now been made clear that after Mrs. Juliet R. Cotton complained that she was having difficulty in carrying out the Aveyime rice project, a committee was set up to investigate her claims and also to make sure that Ghana’s investment in the Quality Grain Company did not go to waste.

Following this, then vice president Professor John Evans Atta Mills who had oversight responsibilities for the Quality Grain Company project in Ghana, ruled that unless those claims were established, there should be no more cash advances to Mrs. Juliet Cotton and her Quality Grain Company.

In spite of that fiat, then finance minister, Mrs. Richard Kwame Peprah and the Head of Legal services at the Ministry of Finance Dr. George Sipa-Adjah Yankey, “suroyad” Prof. Atta Mills, to wit, dribbled him by advancing a further loan of $2,000,000 to the Quality Grain Company Ltd.

This is because Mrs Cotton had said she had lost about US$5.5 million in the investments she had made on the Aveyime rice project. She therefore submitted a bill for US$5.5 million and asked that the Ghana Government reimbursed, her for the loss, since the delay had raised her total investments from US$21 million to US$27 million. But then vice president Professor Atta Mills ruled that this request should be ignored, however his order was disregarded.

In his landmark 95-page judgement on the $22 million Quality Grain case, Justice Dixen Kwame Afreh, a justice of the Supreme Court, who presided over the Quality Grain case at the Fast Trace High Court, reprimanded then vice president Professor John Evans Atta Mills for sitting down, while the 3rd and 4th accused person, Mr Kwame Peprah and Dr George Yankey, did things by disregarding his directives, although he was the “shadow Director” of the Quality Grain! Project.

Contrary to decisions taken to cut Ghana’s losses in the Quality Grain Project on January 29, 1999, i.e. only nine days after a meeting where a decision was taken that no further cash should be advance Mrs. Juliet Cotton, 3rd accused person, (Mr Richard Kwame Peprah), and Mrs. Cotton signed a loan Agreement between the Government of Ghana (GoG) and Quality Grain Company (Ghana) Limited, under which the Government of Ghana “lent” the company US$2,000,000.00.