Former deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture, Johnson Asiedu Nketia MP, Wenchi West, has dissociated himself from the controversial Aveyime rice project, part of the Quality Grain saga that has implicated certain top members of the former NDC government.
Mr. Asiedu Nketia informed Network Herald that even though he was the deputy Minister in charge of crops and grains, he was apparently sidelined on issues relating to the project but hinted that he will prompt the NDC to come out with an official statement on the issue.
The ex-deputy Minister's stand comes in the wake of startling revelations made by Attorney General and Minister of Justice Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo MP Abuakwa to the press in Accra suggesting that the previous government hoodwinked Ghanaians on the prospects of that project.
Nana Akufo-Addo had said that the role played by former President, Jerry Rawlings and his Vice, Professor John Atta Mills in the fraudulent deals of Renee Woodard's Quality Grain Company (QGC) raises significant questions for the present administration to deal with.
Although the involvement of the two in a tale of "negligence and recklessness" in defence of public interest in the entire saga has not been the focus of Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) investigations, they are mentioned in the operations of the company at Aveyime. The project costs the state over $20 million.
Now, Nana Addo says in view of the depth of state resources pumped into the operations of the company, the government will apply this week for the formal take-over of the company in order to regularise government's position on actual ownership.
Also the Ministry of Justice is in conjunction with the Food and Agriculture counterpart, examining the Company's documents in order to establish any wrongdoings on the part of Rawlings, Mills and five other public officials in the NDC government.
The five former officials are Alhaji Ibrahim Adam, then, Minister for Food and Agriculture, Dr Samuel Dapaah, Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Mr. Kwame Peprah, Minister for Finance, Dr George Sikpah-Yankey, Legal adviser in the Ministry of Finance and Nana Ato Dadzie, Chief of Staff.
Mr. Peprah is to be questioned for his role in approving and executing loan agreements and guarantees in favour of QGC without seeking parliamentary approval in violation of Article 181 of the Constitution. He said there are also records of ex-President Rawlings directing the Ministry of Finance to perform certain actions adding those actions would be fully investigated.
Meanwhile, there are reports that similar scenario of malfeasance exists in the government's contract with Chagnon. According to the AG, all the issues will be coming out in due course adding the matters would be dealt with in accordance with the due process of law.
The Attorney General told the press conference that a grand jury proceeding is currently going on against Ms. Woodard in Atlanta in the United States.
