The Indian Government through its Department of Commerce is investigating rice exports to Ghana and some 20 other countries.
Confidential documents cited by an independent special overseas reporter point out that the investigations seek to take suitable measures to make sure that future rice allocation for export to what the India government described as "friendly and needy countries", which included Ghana and Sierra Leone was not diverted.
India's opposition in Parliament during a recent debate noted that the shocking allegations and manoeuvrings by government officials in India and other countries should not be swept under the carpet.
The opposition group and anti corruption groups contended that a committee of enquiry should immediately be set up to investigate the rice scam that has now become the subject of much controversy in Ghana and Madagascar.
India's current Commerce Minister, Anand Sharma has promised an enquiry.
The undaunting initiative by the India government which was spelt out clearly in a correspondence between two top India government officials- The Joint Secretary, Government of India, Ministry of Consumer Affairs of the Food and Public Distribution Department and Shri Dinesh Sharma, Joint Secretary of the Agricultural Division of India's Department of Commerce, was as result of an endorsed copy of an investigation by Ghana's Bureau of National Investigations and the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ghana Police Service.
A letter from the Attorney General's office to the India Government in relation to the issue dated 13 August sought assistance from the India Government in the ongoing investigations into the importation of rice from India in 2008.
Media reports over the rice importation have placed the laudable initiative of the government of India in a deadly pit ever since the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister held two meetings on June 17, 2008 and July 2, 2008 on the issue of requests for purchase of rice from India from several African countries, including Ghana.
The India rice scam, which pundits maintain is the biggest so far, has been labelled in some sections of the media in India as the "Starch Contempt".
News reports emanating from India also lamented that the rice shipments were routed through a cabal of private entities, including Amira Foods Limited, which allegedly diverted the grain and made profits.
Amira Foods Limited, a Delhi- based company that was favoured in the rice scam was the company that exported the rice to Ghana instead of the government procurement agencies.
The entire scam according to Indian media reports was estimated to be worth several millions of dollars.
The decision to export the banned basmatic rice to Ghana and other countries was taken by an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGOM), chaired by India Foreign Minister, Pranab Mukherjee.
According to cabinet notes and documents relating to the exact nature= of the rice transactions, reservations were made by two key government officials who were members of the India governments EGOM.
Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram and Agriculture and Food and Public Distribution Minister, Sharad Pawar vehemently protested that the rice should not be exported to Ghana and other countries due to India's own food security.
The two top India government officials advised that the issue must be deliberated at full length before export approvals were given.
Official documents from some Indian State agencies directly involvedin government businesses categorically made it clear that although the export of non-basmatic rice had been banned and minimum export price for basmati rice had been fixed at 1,200 dollars per ton as at March 31, 2008, which was not comfortable ,the Government of India revealed that "but for keeping in view certain strategic interests of the country, it was decided at a meeting on 2nd July 2008 that supplies should be made to selected countries".
Thus an initial allocation of 225, 000 tons of broken rice was released for sale at subsidised prices by the Government of India. The Government of Ghana then took advantage of the humanitarian offer, leading to the former Trade and Industry Minister Joe Baidoo Ansah initiating the importation of the rice from India.
In a letter dated February 13, 2008, Ansah requested from the Indian Government through the High Commission of India in Ghana to buy 100,000 metric tons of rice.
Records showed that the rice which was to arrive by May 2008 was to "help curb the severe increase of price of staples in Ghana" as a result, the Government of Ghana designated the Ghana Procurement Agency as the consignee.
Former Minister Ansah in another letter dated April 10, 2008 which was addressed this time to the Minister of External Affairs of India, referred to an earlier meeting held between former President Kufuor and the Indian Commerce Minister, Kamal Narth, drawing attention to the severe food situation in Ghana "and sought to procure from the government of India 300 thousand metric tons of low grade white 25 per cent broken rice for shipment to Ghana by June 2008".
However, on April 26, 2008, a note verbale from Akwasi Osei Agyei, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs addressed to the Ministry of External Affairs in India took over the effort and nominated the National Investment Bank (NIB), then headed by Daniel Gyimah as the sole consignee.
Gyimah represented his bank (NIB) negotiated the terms of the contract with State Trading Corporation of India through the Ghana High Commissionin India.
The Ghana High Commission signed the contract on the instructions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Government of Ghana represented by Foreign Minister Akwasi Osei Agyei, Bentum-Williams, High Commissioner and Daniel Gyimah, then Managing Director of the National Investment Bank.
When the rice arrived in Ghana, efforts by the NIB to get import tax exemption from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) to clear the rice were turned down because of the commercial nature of the contract and more so when the Ministry was not involved in the transaction.
When the rice consignment was counted, 2,997 bags out of the 300,000 bags on the manifest were found missing and remaining quantity was in varying states of wholesomeness
Currently, Akwasi Osei-Adjei, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD, and Daniel Charles Gyimah, former Managing Director of the NIB are being prosecuted by an Accra Fast Track High Court in connection with the importation of 15,000 metric tons of the rice from India.
The two are facing eight counts of conspiracy, contravention of the provisions of the Public Procurement Act (Act 663), use of public office for profit, stealing and wilfully causing financial loss to the state to the tune of US$1,408,590 dollars.
They have pleaded not guilty to the various charges and the court presided over Mr. Justice Bright Mensah has admitted them to bail in the sum GH¢200,000 with two sureties each.
The sureties to consist of immovable property and their title deeds are to be deposited at the Court's Registry.
Facts emerging recently at an Accra Financial High Court indicate that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning was kept in the dark during the transaction that led to the importation of the 15,000 metric tons of rice from India, on behalf of the Government of Ghana, in 2008.
According to Mr. Mark Anthony Made, Legal Counsel at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, there were no records at the Ministry regarding the transaction on the rice importation.
Mr. Made, who was giving his evidence-in chief before the court, noted that the Ministry of Finance had no previous documentation on the rice importation.
Led-in-evidence by the Chief State Attorney, Anthony Gyambiby, the witness told the court, presided over by Justice Bright Mensah, that the Ministry of Finance got to know about the transaction, when in February 2009 it received a letter from the NIB, drawing its attention to the contract on the transaction signed in October 2008.
He noted that the letter, which came with several appendixes, was transferred to his office by the Chief Director of the Ministry, who requested for a review of the letter, and advice to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
Subsequently, Made said, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, Nana Juaben Siribuor, in a letter dated March 31, 2008, and communicated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sought to find out the circumstances and background to the contract, the legal authority of Ghana mission in India, whether or not the Ministry of Finance knew of the contract and its role, as well as the grounds and justification of the NIB wanting tax exemptions, in view of the fact that the transaction was purely commercial in nature.
According to the witness, the Ministry of Finance should have been involved in the transaction, if the NIB wanted the government to pay for the rice.
In a response from the Chief Director of the Foreign Ministry, Aggrey Orleans, in a letter dated March 21, 2009 to the Ministry of Finance; Mr. Made indicated that the documentation showed that there were some governmental backings.
The witness noted that documents on the rice importation, including discussions held between the then President John Agyekum Kufuor and his counterpart in India on food shortage in Ghana, were sighted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Trade, asserting that records indicate that Ghana was the buyer of the rice.
The NIB, on the advice of the Foreign Ministry, witness noted, established letters of credit, signed by its Deputy MD, Mr. Tweneboah. The response from the Foreign Ministry, witness indicated, in relation to the tax exemption, was that since the government was to take over the sale and distribution of the rice, there was need for a tax exemption, adding that the Ministry at the end, apologized to the Finance Ministry, and promised to take proper procedures in future transactions.
The witness noted that the Foreign Affairs Ministry, in a formal memorandum on July 3, 2009, to the Finance Ministry, brought to a close the rice importation.
As a result, the witness pointed out some recommendations that were made by the Finance Ministry, including background checks on the transaction, forensic audit into the transaction, and the NIB to be responsible for any losses incurred, if the Finance Ministry was to finance the rice importation.
Made disclosed that a letter dated July 8, from the Ministry of Finance to the NIB Acting MD, has requested for stocktaking on the rice to determine its true value, and that the NIB should take over the distribution of the rice, and pay for it among other considerations.
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