Divestiture Implementation Committee paid ?3b to ghost firm

Accra (Greater Accra) 28 June 2002 - On 28 November 1996, Dan Abodakpi, then Deputy Minister of Trade wrote to Emmanuel A. Agbodo, Executive Secretary of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC), asking that $400,000 (about ?3 billion) of DIC money be paid to Goldshield Contact Services Limited, listed on the company’s letterhead as an “International Consulting Firm.”

The letter stated that the $400,000 was DIC’s contribution towards the company’s operational cost for coordinating trade and investment promotion activities involving Ghana and a number of South-East Asian countries. The amount was duly paid from the dollar account of DIC at the Bank of Ghana (BOG) in Accra, to an account at the Bishopgate Branch of Barclays Bank in London.

In addition to the $400,000, Goldshield submitted a bill for $69,000 for services in respect of the divestiture of the Ghana Film Industry Company. This was also paid. Six years down the line, not only are officials of DIC unable to quantify the services rendered by the Goldshield Services Limited, but they also have no records of the company’s contact address.

“We know that two brothers were involved with Goldshield- Rueben and Ellis Atekpe. We learned that they are relatives of the former Deputy Minister, but we cannot put a finger on what they have done. These requests come and we paid. Please note that those were very different times. We might have been paying money to a ghost company,” a DIC insider told the Agenda.

“As you are aware,” wrote Abodakpi in his letter of 28 November, “Goldshield Contact Limited has been mandated to coordinate trade and investment promotion activities for certain south-east Asian nations, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. In pursuit of this objective, Goldshield is to establish an office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to service the region. As you are no doubt aware, the Divestiture Implementation Committee’s work has greatly been facilitated in South-Africa Asia by Goldshield Services.

Consequently, it is requested that the DIC should contribute towards the operational cost of Goldshield Services in the region for that last three years which, we are advised, runs into over half a million dollars and also assist in the setting up of a permanent office in Kuala Lumpur,” the letter said.

On 2 December the same year, Agbodo asked his accountant, Richard Nana Akuffo to arrange payment. “Nana, please arrange transfer of $400,000 to the account of Goldshield,” Agbodo wrote and signed.

The same day, a transfer request was addressed to the Assistant Director, Banking Department of BOG in Accra, signed by Agbodo and DIC accountant, Akuffo, asking for the transfer of $400,000 to Goldshield through Barclays Bank, at No 155 Bishopgate in London.

On 18 November 1996, Goldshield Services wrote to the Executive Secretary, Agbodo, demanding $13,130.20. The letter signed by Rueben Atekpe as Director said the money was towards two return tickets- Accra-Kualar Lumpur return per KLM invoices attached- and hotel accommodation for five nights. Two days later, Agbodo initialed the request for payment. It is not known whether this amount was paid.

When the Weekend Agenda contacted Agbodo, he told the paper that he has the inclination that he would be summoned somewhere to dilate on the issue and would therefore, not like to prejudice his position.

However, former deputy Minister Abodakpi in an interview, said, “My heart bleeds at the way some of us are being persecuted after giving all the services we have rendered this nation.” He said the $400,000 that DIC paid was on behalf of the divestiture company, the Private Enterprise Foundation (PEF) and the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) which all benefited from the services rendered in South East Asia by Goldshield.

Divestiture paid on behalf of all these state institutions, which were not in financial standing to meet their obligations, he explained and directed the paper to PEF and GIPC. He said the executive secretary of PEF, Mr Kwesi Abeasi, for instance, had been on some of the trips to Malaysia and Singapore arranged and coordinated by Goldshield.

Abeasi, when contacted, admitted having been part of official delegation to the far East but however, denied that the trips were arranged and coordinated by Goldshield. “I have seen two boys- Rueben and Ellis Atekpe- listed as Directors of Goldshield, on some of these trips. But the trips were not coordinated by them. We paid our own passage, hotel bills and other incidentals. We were down there on our own initiatives and those of Ghana missions there.”

Agenda learned through series of contacts that Ellis works for Home Finance Company (HFC) while Rueben was, at that point in time, with the School of Administration, University of Ghana. It was not clear whether the latter was a lecturer, one of the workers or a student.

When located at the HFC, Ellis Atekpe told the Agenda that Goldshield is a United Kingdom-based company but when asked why there is no contact address on the letterheads used to write to the DIC, his response was that the issue could not be properly addressed in his office, while a later appointment was also not possible.

He disputed the assertion that Goldshield’s address was not provided in their communications with DIC, saying it was the method of photocopying the document in Agenda’s possession that had taken away the address. – Weekend Agenda.