The Herald’s painstaking investigation has revealed that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) for Assin North, Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, ironically as a husband and politician will not hesitate to push his wife, Stella Agyepong into fire in order to safe his skin.
Mr. Agyepong’s recent public declaration that it was rather his wife, who got awarded a multi-million dollar supply contract from the Ministry of Energy, has turned out to be a blatant lie as revealed by documents signed by an ex-Energy Minister in the Kufuor regime, Mr. Felix Owusu-Adjapong. This document is dated December 11, 2008.
The documents demonstrate how both husband and wife were separately awarded contracts under the National Electrification Scheme (NES) project under the Energy Ministry. Some of the payments especially those made to Mr. Agyepong were done whilst the Kufuor regime was packing out of office.
Claims are that Mr. Agyepong, who is accused of shortchanging the state in the execution of a contract worth nearly US$16 million, feared the incoming Mills regime was going to scrutinize the deal, and might not pay him what he wanted. The Herald was told he did not supply all the energy materials, yet got paid the huge sum.
Additional confidential documents extracted from the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Finance and the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB) have revealed that apart from his wife, Ken Agyepong got the US$16 million contract from the same energy ministry, using a company called Super Care Limited.
Mrs. Stella Agyepong, his wife on her part acquired contracts using two companies, namely; Mina D’oro Ventures and Messrs Imperial World Business Limited to profit from the same National Electrification Scheme (NES), project.
Some of the documents which formed the bases of the huge payments to Ken Agyepong in particular, appeared very suspicious. Signatures were without corresponding names attached to them, and telephones numbers went through many times without answers, when dialed.
There are claims that the contracts to the Agyepong family, were clandestinely split into bits and pieces to have them awarded on the table, instead of going through the legally laid down process of competitive tender to ensure value for money.
Among the pile of documents, is a memo from the state-owned ADB prepared by an ex-Managing Director, Yaw Opoku Atuahene, authorizing the release of GH¢5 million to the Assin North MP to pre-finance a Fifteen million, Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Thousand, Fifty Seven United Dollars and ninety six cent (US$15,999,057.96).
The Herald discovered that the huge sum was shockingly released to Mr. Agyepong, without the approval of the bank’s board of directors. The ex-ADB MD’s document was dated December 24, 2008, at a time the Kufuor regime was packing out of office, having lost the 2008 elections to the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Mr. Atuahene acknowledged acting illegally at the time when the monies where being released to Mr. Agyepong, he had not been doing business with the state bank. He admitted that Ken Agyepong had barely opened an account with ADB, at the time.
“Even though the customer has not done business with the Bank over a period of time to justify this request, we view the request as an opportunity for the bank to make income. The risk of default is virtually nil with the Promissory Note from the Ministry of Finance & Economic Planning, which covers the value of the contract already executed”, the former ADB boss said in his memo.
Mr. Atuahene had earlier in the same memo noted Mr. Agyepong’s inability to raise funds from his original bankers, National Investment Bank Limited (NIB), hence he had to rush to the ADB with a simply promissory note from the Ministry of Finance signed by then Deputy Minister of Finance, Prof. Gyan-Baffour, and an undertaken provided by Mr. Owusu-Adjapong to the Agric Bank.
Mr. Agyepong according ADB sources hurriedly collected the monies from the headquarters of the Bank in Accra as well as the Adabraka Branch of ADB also in Accra. He was said to have been apprehensive that the Mills regime was going to stop the payment when discovered. Part of the money was even counted in the middle of the night, according to banks records.
Payments To Mrs. Stella Agyepong, Many other documents in the custody of The Herald including one dated July 23, 2008, and signed by Dr. A Akoto Osei, then a Minister of State at the Finance Ministry, directed the payment of the One million to Messrs Mina D’Oro into account number 1131000003302 Agriculture Development Bank, Madina Branch for the supply of energy materials to the Ministry of Energy.
Another document dated August 7, 2008 and again signed by the same Dr. A Akoto Osei directed the payment of Six hundred and fifty thousand dollars to Messrs Mina D’Oro, into account number 1131000003302 Agriculture Development Bank, Madina Branch for the supply of energy materials to the Ministry of Energy.
Another document signed by Dr. Osei, and dated November 27, 2008 demanded the release of the Two million, one hundred and seventy-five United States dollars, this time to the M/S Imperial World Limited for the supply of electrical materials for the Rural Electrification Project.
The amount was paid into the company’s account number 113100013929 at the Agriculture Development Bank, Madina Branch. Prior to this payment, Deputy Minister of Finance, Prof. Gyan-Baffour, had on November 18, 2008 authorized the payment of the Three Million United States dollars to M/S Imperial World Limited for the supply of electrical materials for the Rural Electrification Project.
Both man and wife have appeared before the Economic and Organized Crime Office EOCO to assist investigations into the award of these contracts. The Herald is informed by sources there that police statements were taken from the couple and a docket has been prepared for possible prosecution. More to come.
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