By William
Yaw Owusu
Tuesday
September 25, 2018
A former Managing
Director of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST) Limited
under the previous Mahama administration, Kingsley Kwame Awuah-Darko is missing,
according to the Economic and Organised Crime Organization (EOCO).
After publications
that the anti-graft body was pursuing him, Mr. Awuah-Darko came out to say that
he had always been available, but EOCO is insisting that he cannot be traced in
respect of his alleged role in the ‘rot’ at BOST.
New Twist
A source at EOCO
told DAILY
GUIDE exclusively that the authorities cannot trace his whereabouts and
tell the nature of his purported ailment.
“We wrote to Mr.
Awuah-Darko to come and assist in investigations into his leadership at BOST
but there was no response,” a top source at EOCO said, adding “he is not in the
country.”
He said a letter
dated 27th June was written to inform EOCO that he was receiving
treatment for an undisclosed ailment at an unnamed location outside the
jurisdiction.
“We do not know
where he is and cannot tell the nature of his ailment and besides there is no medical
proof of his sickness,” the source added.
“We want him to
assist in investigations not proxy responses. We are a friendly organization
and our doors are always open. Let him fly down from wherever he is so he can
assist in investigations.”
Continuing, the
source added that “EOCO is a friendly organization and all we want is for him to
come and assist in the ongoing investigations”.
BOST Saga
It is turning out
the GH¢40.5 million allegedly transferred from the BOST to the Mahama administration
constitutes just a fraction of the mess that characterized Mr. Awuah-Darko’s
leadership at the state oil facility.
The real amount of
money allegedly misappropriated is believed to be in excess of hundreds of
millions of cedis, according to a forensic audit report on some state-owned
companies.
Some top officials
of BOST have also been cited in the report for misappropriating public funds
and have been asked to account for them.
Mr. Awuah-Darko,
according to the forensic audit, allegedly misappropriated GH¢109,498,565 and
$33,305,527, and funds transferred to the Chief of Staff alone was
GH¢83,567,206 aside from the GH¢40.5 million earlier reported.
The report said the
former Board Chairman of BOST Kakra Essamuah should also account for
GH¢1,941,527.00 and $3,741,527.00.
According to the
report, George Aborah, former General Manager, Finance at BOST, allegedly
misappropriated GH¢86,418,225.00 and $8,088,986 and should ‘account’ for the money.
The report also
cited Mr. Aborah for allegedly transferring GH¢40,500,000 to the Chief of Staff.
He was also cited for
procurement irregularities amounting to GH¢14, 272, 126.
Mr Aborah is also to
account for GH¢2,539,624.55 as “excess cash management and transfer fees
charged by First Atlantic Bank.”
The report further
said GKA Consultancy Services, owned by Mr. Aborah, had misappropriated
GH¢2,800,000 and $647,000 and therefore should account for that amount.
Project Manager of
BOST, Ato Wilson was cited for procurement irregularities amounting to
GH¢14,272, 126 and should account for $9,572.34.
Awuah-Darko Rejoinder
Last week when EOCO
caused publications to be issued to the effect that it could not trace Mr. Awuah-Darko,
he released a rejoinder, saying “EOCO is not and cannot be chasing me since
they know of my whereabouts, so the story that EOCO is chasing me is palpably
false…”
He also denied
claims that he supervised the illegal transfer of huge amounts of money into an
account held by the Chief of Staff (CoS) under the Mahama presidency.
Narrating how EOCO
got in touch with him, Mr. Awuah-Darko said “on receipt of their letter I
called the office and spoke to the DG’s assistant. I followed our conversation
up with a letter which I copied my lawyers on. In my response to EOCO, I gave
them my telephone number and my email on which I could be reached on. EOCO has
not responded to my letter either by email or by phone to date.”
He said “they
dropped a letter off in my house somewhere towards the end of March and early
May, which was sent to me by my office in Accra. This account is not a fake
account, neither is the Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic of
Ghana a fake position.”
Forensic Audit
The government
sanctioned forensic audit was conducted by reputable international auditing
firms into the affairs of those agencies and others where massive looting of
state resources through procurements and deliberate stealing of money running
into several billion Ghana cedis were detected.
According to the
auditors, there were massive breaches of the Public Procurement Law (Act 663,
2003) and the Public Procurement (Amendment) Law (Act 914, 2016) and mentioned
some of them as “inflation of contracts sums and non-performance of contracts.
Others include non-enforcement and breach of contracts.”
The auditors also
discovered “breach of the provision of the Financial Administration Regulation,
2004 (L.I. 1802), such as cash disbursement without authorization, deposit of
public funds into personal accounts and failing to account for accountable
travelling allowances.”
Sources said the
revelations are just the tip of the iceberg of the corruption that
characterized the previous Mahama administration.
Amidu Alert
The names of the gurus
at BOST, alongside former heads of six state-owned agencies which appeared in
the special forensic audit report, have since been submitted to the office of
the Special Prosecutor, headed by former Attorney General Martin A.B.K. Amidu
and the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO).
Apart from the BOST
where the forensic audit was carried out, the other companies equally cited for
alleged wrongdoing are Ghana National Gas Company (GNGC), Microfinance and
Small Loans Centre (MASLOC), Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB), Bulk Oil Storage
and Transportation Company (BOST), Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) and the
Ghana Technology University College (GTUC).
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