At the initial sitting of the Commission of Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), it was revealed that Mr Kwame Addo, a board member of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT), allegedly engineered the sale of a private company's land worth 30 million cedis for 1.6 billion cedis to SSNIT, says The Ghanaian Times.
Thursday's sitting of CHRAJ, probing into the operations of SSNIT had Mr Komla Dumor of Joy FM and Mr George Ernest Amoako, a director/shareholder of the company, River Estates Company Limited, testifying.
The transaction, involving about 570 acres at Odupong Ofankor, near Accra, was executed during the tenure of office of Mr Henry Dei, SSNIT Director-General (DG) in 1995.
Mr Charles Asare, the current DG, at a SSNIT news conference late last year, confirmed payment of the 1.6 billion cedis, which he said, he needed time to assess.
Mr Dumor stated that Mr Amoako told him that River Estates wanted to diversify from farming into real estate development and negotiated a new deal on the land with the Ofankor chiefs at 30 million cedis.
Mr Addo, the SSNIT director, it was alleged offered to finance the purchase for River Estates and consequently paid the amount but in subsequent transactions between River Estates and SSNIT for the resale of the land, the Trust paid, by cheque, 1.6 billion, he said.
"But this money was never paid to River Estates, rather it was alleged to have been paid to Mr Addo," Mr Dumor said.
Explaining his suspicion he said Mr Amoako told him that as a director/shareholder of River Estates, he (Amoako) never saw any entry made to that effect in the company's books. In his submission, Mr Amoako could not say exactly how much SSNIT paid for the land, alleging that his senior partner in River Estates Nana Oworae Wiredu connived with Mr Addo to keep him in the dark and, therefore, he knew nothing about how the sale was concluded.
