*More evidence emerge to prove NDC collected money from Scancem
*Crusading GUIDE’s October 18, 2007 £116,000 Scancem/NDC Story Confirmed As Austin Gamey Admits Receipt Of £116,000 In The Name Of Rawlings’ Party For Election 2000!
The Crusading GUIDE in its October 18-24, 2007 edition revealed in a story headlined: “EXPOSED – NDC Guru Received £116,000.00 from Scancem for 2000 Elections” that “despite vehement denials by Ex-President Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, that they are innocent of the allegations made against them to the effect that they (“The Rawlingses”) received bribe money in millions of dollars from former officials of the Norwegian cement giant, Scancem, some credible evidence has popped up to indicate that their party – the National Democratic Congress (NDC) – after all, benefited from the cement company to prosecute the 2000 elections”.
As we indicated in that edition, The Crusading GUIDE had intercepted some documents which indicated that “an ardent lady NDC supporter (name withheld for now) led a Ghanaian official of Scancem to obtain £116,000 from the Norwegian company to assist the party during the 2000 elections”. (See pages 3 & 4 for evidence!)
The conscious decision of The Crusading GUIDE not to identify the personalities involved in that ‘irregular and illegal transaction/donation’, provoked some negative reactions from sections of the public and the pro-NDC media to the effect that our story was unprofessional, irresponsible and rumour-based.
Now the Cat is out of the bag! Mr. Austin Gamey, a former Deputy Minister in the Rawlings-led NDC Administration, in a series of interviews with The Statesman and The Crusading GUIDE in the last few days, has admitted authorship of a letter dated January 17, 2003 which underscores the receipt of the £116,000 from Scancem as “assistance for Election 2000”.
Mr. Gamey told the Editor-in-Chief of this paper (Kweku Baako, Jnr.) last Tuesday evening that the £116,000 was a donation from Scancem. He insisted that it was not ‘a bribe money’ and “not meant for any individual but for the whole party”.
“That donation had nothing to do with the Norwegian Court case about the alleged $4m bribery of ‘the Rawlingses’ and PV Obeng. ‘The Rawlingses’ knew nothing about the donation, it was for the party and it went to the Party Chairman for Electioneering. That is all about it”, he emphasised.
The £116,000 was transferred to Mr. Gamey via an account at the Tema-based Trust Bank. Gamey told The Crusading GUIDE that the account belonged to a company owned by some friends of his.
Reminded that the receipt of that ‘donation’ for Election 2000 amounted to a violation of the Political Parties Law (ACT 574), Mr. Gamey said he did not think so, and also did not avert his mind to that at the time he was accepting the donation in 2000.
Part III, Section 23(1) (Funding of Political Parties), of Act 574 (2000) passed by Parliament on February 23, 2000, stipulated that “ONLY A CITIZEN MAY CONTRIBUTE IN CASH OR IN KIND TO THE FUNDS OF A POLITICAL PARTY”.
Section 23(2) also states that “A FIRM, PARTNERSHIP OR ENTERPRISE OWNED BY A CITIZEN OR A COMPANY REGISTERED UNDER THE LAWS OF THE REPUBLIC AT LEAST SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT OF WHOSE CAPITAL IS OWNED BY A CITIZEN IS FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS ACT A CITIZEN”.
On the issue of ‘No contribution by non-citizens’, Section 24 makes it clear that “A NON-CITIZEN SHALL NOT DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY MAKE A CONTRIBUTION OR DONATION OR LOAN WHETHER IN CASH OR IN KIND TO THE FUNDS HELD BY OR FOR THE BENEFIT OF A POLITICAL PARTY AND NO POLITICAL PARTY OR PERSON ACTING FOR OR ON BEHALF OF A POLITICAL PARTY SHALL DEMAND OR ACCEPT A CONTRIBUTION, DONATION OR LOAN FROM A NON-CITIZEN”.
By September 17, 1999, Scancem, according to public records, had bought the remaining 35 per cent of Government of Ghana (GoG) shares in Ghacem, thus making it attain the status of ‘a non-citizen’ in line with Section 23(2) and Section 24 of Act 574 (Political Parties Law, 2000).
It will be recalled that as at 1991, GoG owned 75 percent of the shares in Ghana Cement Works Limited (Ghacem); the remaining 25 percent was held by Scancem of Oslo, Norway (24.5%) together with Dr. J.A. Addison (0.5%).
On August 12, 1992 GoG sold 2,800,000 of its shares in GHACEM to Scancem under a Share Sale and Purchase Agreement for US$4,074,000.
AND BY THE END OF 1999, THE REMAINING 35 PERCENT OF GOG’S SHARES IN GHACEM WAS OFFLOADED TO SCANCEM FOR US$17 MILLION US DOLLARS WHICH, ACCORDING TO THE AUDITOR-GENERAL, CANNOT BE TRACED IN PUBIC ACCOUNTS AS AT TODAY.
Readers will recall that this paper in its edition of Volume 9 Number 65 dated 21 – 27 August, 2007 carried a story headlined: “The Scancem Bribery Scandal…NDC CITED …As one of the beneficiaries”, in which was captured testimonies made at the Asker and Baerum District Court in Norway by Tor Nygarrd, the immediate past Managing Director (MD) of GHACEM, during the trial of Tor Egil Kjelsaas, the African representative of Scancem.
TOR NYGAARD SAID SCANCEM HAD PAID BRIBE MONIES TO POLITICIANS, THE PARTY IN GOVERNMENT (NDC) AND PORT AUTHORITIES IN ORDER TO FACILITATE THEIR EFFORTS AT GAINING DOMINANCE IN THE GHANAIAN CEMENT INDUSTRY.
The paper said Tor Egil Kjelsaas was accused by the new owners of Scancem Heidelberg of “pocketing tribe monies intended to secure monopoly of the cement industry for Scancem”.
“According to Nygaard”, said the paper, “they developed special code forms in Ghana for those the bribe was paid to. The forms were entitled ‘Special Payment’ and each recipient had his/her own number code, adding that the forms operated with a total of 14 such codes”.
According to the paper, Nygaard said “payments for each individual recipient was specified with date and amount in Ghanaian cedis and American dollars”.
Again, readers will recall that in the wake of 31 December Holy War premised on Probity and Accountability, some leading figures of the Limann-led PNP Administration namely, Krobo Edusei, Kwesi Armah and Okutwer Bekoe were put before Public Tribunal for allegedly violating the political parties law by contracting $1m loan from an Italian businessman then based in South Africa, and subsequently jailed.
Meanwhile, Mr. Gamey in defending NDC’s receipt of what he calls ‘donation’, claimed that THE NPP ALSO WAS A BENEFICIARY OF A SIMILAR PACKAGE FROM SCANCEM THOUGH HE CONCEDED HE HAD NO DOCUMENTARY PROOF OF HIS ASSERTION. HE INSISTED HE WAS GIVEN THAT INFORMATION BY MR. E.K. ADU, EX-ADMINISTRATIVE SECRETARY OF GHACEM, AND NOW GHANA’S AMBASSADOR TO BENIN.
