A Deputy Minister for Information has strongly averred that the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) should be held responsible for the GNPC Drill Ship saga.
Felix Kwakye Ofosu asserts “it was their coup mentality with which they came into government that created this mess”. According to him, the Kufuor administration, when it assumed the reins of leadership, had the unconstructive mindset that “everybody who held positions under the NDC government must be dealt with, embraced and disgraced is what led to this.”
The Drill Ship brouhaha seems to get murkier and murkier by the day with different and outrageous revelations emerging at the Judgment Debt Commission. The sale of Discoverer 511, which was sold for US$24 million to defray US$19.5 million indebtedness to French Bank Societe Generale in 2001, has become a controversial issue in recent times.
Even though the transaction took place in 2001, $3.5million of the proceeds including its documentation can still not be traced.
A former Chief Executive Officer of the GNPC, Dr. Amos Ofori Quaah, said during proceedings at the Judgment Debt Commission which is probing the matter that the ship was sold despite the absence of any court order for the payment of any judgment debt. Dr. Quaah also said he was merely asked to sign a Power of Attorney which had already been prepared by the then Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Nana Akufo-Addo for the transfer of the ship to the buyers.
Acting head of the Ghana Youth Employment and Entrepreneurial Development Agency (GYEEDA), Kobby Acheampong claims the former NPP Flagbearer, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo was presented with every documentation pertaining to the drillship, and therefore stands in a better position to help unravel the mystery surrounding the sale.
Clearly seconding the position of Kobby Acheampong, the deputy information minister said on Radio Gold’s “Alhaji and Alhaji” programme that the Drill ship saga is a classic example of how to create corruption and for it to thrive.
“The blame for the drill ship disaster must be heaped at the doorstep of NPP…GNPC is a legal entity and therefore if they had some assets that were being a liability and needed to be sold or disposed of, the right thing needed to be done. But a whole government usurped the function of GNPC; in the process shady deals transpired…” he asserted.
According to the deputy minister, all the parties that took part in the sale and transaction of the Drill ship ‘showed gross incompetence and that is why we are where we are…’
He indicated that the NPP and its 2012 flagbearer are not above the law and so if investigations implicate them in the issue, they have no option than to present themselves before the investigative body to clear doubts that have arisen as a result of the controversial sale of the GNPC drill ship.
“…in the fight against corruption, nobody is above transparency and accountability, and when the time comes for you to give account, it doesn’t matter whether you are cooling off in Azerbaijan or whether you have lost the elections for ten times. And indeed, he (Nana) needs to come down and answer some questions because the documents cannot be found and he was the one who asked for those documents,” Felix Kwakye Ofosu claimed.
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