By William
Yaw Owusu
Monday April
09, 2018
It is turning out that the former Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), Dr Stephen Kwabena Opuni allegedly
gave authorization for subsidiaries of the Board to invest huge amounts of
cocoa cash into what looks like unprofitable ventures.
One of the subsidiaries of COCOBOD, Cocoa Marketing
Company Limited (CMC), whose board was chaired by Dr Opuni, invested heavily in
private financial institutions, as well as micro finance institutions in clear
breach of its policy where almost GH¢60 million appears to have gone down the
drain.
Committee
Report
A report of an Ad-Hoc Committee set up by COCOBOD to
investigate trade and investment irregularities that occurred at CMC Limited between
2014/2015 to 2015/2016 sighted by DAILY GUIDE made shocking
revelations about how the previous Opuni-led administration wasted cocoa money
on non-banking financial institutions, some of which never returned the
investments to the state like a ponzi scheme.
The non-financial institutions, who were
beneficiaries of the CMS Limited’s ‘benevolence,’ included Eclipse Investment,
Corporate Hill Investment, Express Saving & Loans, Ideal Finance, CDH
Investment, Hodidi Microfinace and ASN Financial Services.
Three bigwigs at CMC, including its former MD,
Bennett Akantoa, Dr Edem Amegashie-Duvon (deputy MD) and John Odametey, deputy
MD, Finance, were put under investigation.
Total
Investments
In all, a total amount of GH¢56,507,795.94 was made
as investments with the non-bank financial institutions as at April 15, 2017 with
GH¢52,284,811.71 and GH¢4,222,984.23 as principal and interest respectively.
In the breakdown, CMC invested GH¢28,496,549.34 with
GH¢25,837,613.12 and GH¢2,658,936.22 as principal and interest respectively in Express
Savings & Loans and the source of funds read ‘corporate/sweeping.’
For Hodidi Microfinance the source of fund was
‘sweeping’ and CMC invested GH¢4,669,050.19 with GH¢239,578.48 and
GH¢4.429,471.71 as interest and principal respectively.
CMC also invested GH¢10,928,836.14 with
GH¢784,021.72 and GH¢10,144,814.42 as interest and principal respectively in
Eclipse Investment and the source of fund read ‘Corporate/Provident
fund/Welfare’ while the COCOBOD subsidiary again invested GH¢4,479,266.66 with GH¢210,513.84
and GH¢4,268,572.82 as interest and principal respectively and the source of
funds was ‘Provident Fund/Welfare.’
For Corporate Hill, CMC invested GH¢4,109,079.11
with GH¢205,042.10 and GH¢3,904,036.95 as interest and principal respectively
and the source of funds was ‘Corporate’ but in the case of ASN Financial
Services, there was no source of funds indicated, but CMC invested
GH¢3,825,014.50 with GH¢124,891,81 and GH¢3,700,122.96 respectively as interest
and principal.
Most of the investments could not be recouped,
making the company to lose miserably.
Loss
of Funds
According to the report, CMC’s investment exposure with
non-bank financial institutions as at September 30, 2017 stood at GH¢59,931,555.96
and the breakdown showed that Express Savings & Loans had GH¢30,677,861.73
followed by Eclipse Investment with GH¢15,949,162.24.
Corporate Hills Investment, Hodidi Microfinance and
ASN Financial Service had GH¢4,827,213.16, GH¢4,310,706.91 and 4,166,539.65
respectively.
The report said Express Savings and Loans gave a
static interest rate at 27% without taking into consideration the time and
principal amount and also gave seven separate cheques to CMC totaling GH¢17,285,166.97
but since the first one was dishonoured at the bank on August 26, 2016 “the
remaining cheques were not presented because the first one was not honoured.”
The report also indicted the CEO of Express Savings
& Loans called Prince Sarpong when it said he was the brain behind other
non-bank financial institutions like ASN Financial Services, Corporate Hills
and Express Savings & Loans where CMC put its investments.
“Prince Sarpong was a director of Corporate Hills
Investment, and a majority shareholder in ASN Financial Services when
investments were made in these two companies. After he had acquired a majority
shareholding in Express Savings & Loans, investments were made there again,”
the report explained.
According to the report, “Letters from CMC
Management requesting the six non-banking financial institutions to pay back
all installments by March 17, 2017 were not honoured,” adding “only Corporate
Hills Investment and Eclipse Micro Finance responded to the letters from CMC.”
The report said that Corporate Hills Investment
contested the GH¢4,827,213.16 as total indebtedness to CMC as at January 11,
2017 but when they were asked to submit relevant documents to prove, they never
appeared before the Ad-hoc Committee again and rather sent the documents
through Prince Sarpong, CEO of Express Savings & Loans.
The committee noted that “the assets portfolio of
Corporate Hills Investment will not be sufficient to pay CMC’s investment to
them.”
For Eclipse Micro Finance, the report said CMC’s
investments on different dates were neither rolled over nor redeemed when they
matured and as at April 15, 2017 additional interest had accrued on the
investment and the new balance stood at GH¢10,928,836.14 and the current
investment as at September 30, 2017 stood at GH¢15,949,162.24.
It said “the CEO, Kafui Amegah could not confirm
CMC’s investment balance when he met the committee,” adding “he promised after
the second meeting to reappear with relevant documents and payment plan but he
failed to show up.”
“Eclipse has neither the capacity nor intention to
pay back the investments and interest accrued. Eclipse was incorporated in July
2013 and commenced business in August 2013.”
The report further said that ASN Financial Services
as at April 15, 2017 was holding CMC’s GH¢3,825,014.50 although the investment
matured in March 2016 and as at September 30, 2017, CMC’s investment with the
private firm had reached GH¢4,166,539.65.
“The committee found that ASN Financial Services has
neither the capacity nor intention to pay back the investments. Prince Sarpong
was the majority shareholder and a director at the time CMC placed investment
with ASN. Johannes Okutu Akuffo failed to present the letter he said he wrote
to the COCOBOD Chief Executive.
Both ASN Financial Services and Express Savings
& Loans claim ownership of the mortgage with CMC.”
For Hodidi Micro Finance, the CMC’s investment was
neither rolled over nor redeemed when they matured at various maturity dates
and as at April 15, 2017, additional interest had accrued on the investments
and the new balance stood at GH¢3,975,125.25 while by September 30, same year,
the balance stood at GH¢4,310,706.91.
“The committee found that Charles Owusu Juanah and
Solomon Tanye who presented themselves as a Director and Managing Director
respectively were not directors of the company.”
The directors are Akwasi Prempeh and Frank Brown,
according to checks at the Registrar General’s Department.
The representatives of Hodidi were evasive and did
not show any sign of a company which is ready to make good their indebtedness.”
Therefore, the committee recommended that all the
companies should be reported to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),
Bank of Ghana (BoG) and the state investigative agencies for action to be taken
and also asked COCOBOD to ‘blacklist’ all of them.
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