Akufo-Addo wanted me to shelve the report on Agyapa – Amidu

Special Prosecutor Martin Amidu has alleged that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo wanted him to shelve the Agyapa Royalties report.

In his letter explaining his resignation from the office, he further alleged that the President asked him to also allow him to deal with the issue personally.

“I again asserted that I was not going to bargain over the independence of my functions as the Special Prosecutor. I refused to take the copy of the alleged comments from the Minister of Finance you offered me as that would have compromised my independence as the Special Prosecutor. I also refused to shelve my report to enable you to handle the matter which explains my press release to the public on this morning of 24 November 2020 and the follow-up with the distribution of the full sixty-four (64) page Agyapa Royalties Transactions anti-corruption assessment report to the public, unbeknown to you that I had published the fall sixty-four (64) page report to the public you caused a press statement to be made based on my letter dated 16 October 2020 to you under reference which sought to politicize and down play the seriousness of the professional analysis of the risk of corruption and anti-corruption assessment reported by my Office,” Amidu said in the letter dated November 16, 2020.

In his corruption risk assessment of the controversial deal, Mr Amidu stated that consultations over the agreement were not comprehensive and innovative enough.

He further disclosed that the selection and appointment of advisors for the agreement did not meet the “fundamentals of probity, transparency and accountability.”

“A casual reading of the Transaction Documents leaves nobody in doubt that it affects the rights and obligations of several stakeholders in the Mining and Minerals sector of the economy including the Chiefs and people of Ghana.”

“All the parties to the Mandate Agreement are deemed to have known the law but ignored it with impunity in signing and implementing the Mandate Agreement which is null and void ab initio as violating the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) and the Public Procurement Authority Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as amended. This conduct which appears to have been in furtherance of the suspected bid-rigging, in the assessment of this Office severely lowered the risk of corruption, and rendered them a low-risk enterprise in the Agyapa Royalties Transactions process and their approval. It is with these new lenses that the analysis of the risk of corruption, and anti-corruption assessments of the legality of the engagement of the other services providers and underwriters on the recommendations of the Transaction Advisors acting as the Ministry of Finance’s procurement entity tender committee contrary to Part VI of the Public Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663) as amended, and Sections 7 and 25 of the Public Financial Management Act, 2016 (Act 921) afore-quoted were made.”