Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By William Yaw Owusu
Friday, April 28, 2017
It has emerged that a former Chief
Executive Officer of Venture Capital Trust Fund (VCTF), Daniel Kofi Duku, allegedly
issued dud cheques to the fund when he was asked to refund monies he purportedly
unlawfully misappropriated.
The CEO, who reportedly was
on a monthly salary of $15,000 (GH¢63,000), was said to have embarked on an
unauthorized business trip outside the country and ended up blowing $26,000
belonging to the fund.
The Board of Trustees then
asked him to refund the amount; and an internal investigative report conducted
into the VCTF indicated that $8,252 had been paid, with $18,000 still outstanding.
The Bureau of National
Investigations (BNI) is currently probing him for alleged massive corruption
under his leadership.
Two Cheques
When pressure was mounted on
him to refund the rest of the money, Mr Kofi Duku allegedly issued two Barclays
Bank cheques on July 30, 2011 and August 15, the same year, representing
GH¢20,000 and GH¢10,000 respectively, which were all dishonoured by the bank when
they were presented.
The alleged corrupt practices
at the VCTF - which have virtually brought the fund, meant to give lifeline to
Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) to its knees - has sparked public
outrage.
Two important schemes under
the fund called Development Assistance Fund (DAF) and the Special Purpose
Vehicle (SPV) were allegedly used as an avenue to steal state funds.
Currently, only about 7% of a
whopping GH¢18.26 million invested by the government between 2010 and 2015 has
been recovered, and GH¢32 million is reportedly missing.
About 205 SMEs are said to
have benefitted from the DAF and SPV schemes and some
existing and former employees, particularly Mr Daniel Kofi Duku, have been
cited for “directly or indirectly” engaging in “fraudulent activities” during
the disbursement of the DAF and SPV loans.
Loans were purportedly
awarded to phony companies which could not be traced, making recovery very
difficult.
Mr Kofi Duku, who was appointed
by the late President Atta Mills in June 2010, was removed by John Mahama and
replaced with the current chief executive, Osman Sulemana, who just referred
the matter to the BNI.
BNI Probe
An internal investigative
report cited by DAILY GUIDE mentioned the alleged fraudulent activities of the
former CEO and his cronies and as a result, Mr Osman Sulemana, on the
instructions of the Board of Trustees, has invited the BNI to thoroughly look
into the matter.
Apart from Mr. Duku, other
top managers who are to be investigated include Kofi Sarpong, a former senior
investment officer; Irene Anti Mensah, special assistant to the Ex-CEO;
Emmanuel Akuamoah, Deputy General Manager – Kumasi Office; Charles Okyere, a
client and friend to the Ex-CEO; Lassey Agbenyefia, former Trustee; George
Aidoo, driver of the ex-CEO and Charity Opoku, former accountant and now an
Investment Officer.
Conflict Of Interest
The report stated that “further
investigations on the background of companies with the aim to aid recoveries of
loans granted by the Trust Fund have revealed Mr. Duku’s involvement, through a
company owned by him and other key application addresses same as one linked to
him.
“These linkages cited are
against the conflict of interest rules guiding the public sector and further
hinders the efforts of the Trust Fund to recover these amounts paid to these
non-existing companies.”
According to the report, the
former CEO disregarded the board’s directive to halt the disbursement of the
loans and went ahead in an ‘ultra vires’ fashion to disburse a whopping
GH¢825,000.
It further said the involvement
of Mr Agbenyefia, former trustee of the fund in many of the loans granted “is
damning and partly relates to matters of fraud.
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