DIRECT INTERVIEWS and cyber-investigations within the United Nations system last week showed that the much vaunted $1billion loan from the invisible group styling themselves as IFC (International Finance Consortium) has not made any formal arrangement with the world body over the management of a project in favour of the government and people of Ghana.

The Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Mr. Bisrat Aklilu, on Friday last. responded in the negative to inquiries over a project from the International Finance Consortium (IFC) involving a sum in the neighbourhood of $300 million to $1 billion.

Mr. Aklilu, an Ethiopian, said he was familiar with the name IFC, and had heard a story that the Parliament of Ghana had given the greenlight for a certain facility. He knows Professor Eddie Ayensu all right, but he does not know officials of IFC. "There is nothing on the table like that. We are handling a project of this size, $2.5 billion, and smaller sums like $2.5 million for other countries from our Denmark office," Aklilu said emphatically.

"Please, as a fellow African, could you tell me anything you know since my government and countrymen are seriously expecting these monies?," Chronicle pressed.

The diplomat added that he was sure that the Ministers and Parliament of Ghana would certainly have checked out IFC before engaging in any transaction with them, so he can only say that they would act as soon as they receive an official request.

UNOPS is the closest to any identifiable credible institution that Professor Ayensu and the Government team on the IFC loan had mentioned since the issue became public.

Ayensu claimed that it was Mr. Reinhart Helmke, the Executive Director of UNOPS, a German national, who had originally told him about the IFC.

On Thursday, Reinhart returned my call after his secretary, Sereme, asked that my call would be returned as Reinhart was holding a staff meeting that very minute. She said she was familiar with the name International Finance Consortium and, of course, Professor Ayensu but her boss would be returning my call after she took my international numbers and my name.

Twenty four hours later, Mr. Reinhart, her boss, took off for an international assignment. They had tried to reach me but could not get through, she said, and offered to refer the next competent person, the Executive Deputy Director, Mr. Bisrat Aklilu.

With the comments of the Director, the only real plank supporting the story appears to have collapsed, leaving the other option of a miracle, or in the minds of more fertile people, tainted money as yet another faint possibility.

DIRECT INTERVIEWS and cyber-investigations within the United Nations system last week showed that the much vaunted $1billion loan from the invisible group styling themselves as IFC (International Finance Consortium) has not made any formal arrangement with the world body over the management of a project in favour of the government and people of Ghana.

The Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), Mr. Bisrat Aklilu, on Friday last. responded in the negative to inquiries over a project from the International Finance Consortium (IFC) involving a sum in the neighbourhood of $300 million to $1 billion.

Mr. Aklilu, an Ethiopian, said he was familiar with the name IFC, and had heard a story that the Parliament of Ghana had given the greenlight for a certain facility. He knows Professor Eddie Ayensu all right, but he does not know officials of IFC. "There is nothing on the table like that. We are handling a project of this size, $2.5 billion, and smaller sums like $2.5 million for other countries from our Denmark office," Aklilu said emphatically.

"Please, as a fellow African, could you tell me anything you know since my government and countrymen are seriously expecting these monies?," Chronicle pressed.

The diplomat added that he was sure that the Ministers and Parliament of Ghana would certainly have checked out IFC before engaging in any transaction with them, so he can only say that they would act as soon as they receive an official request.

UNOPS is the closest to any identifiable credible institution that Professor Ayensu and the Government team on the IFC loan had mentioned since the issue became public.

Ayensu claimed that it was Mr. Reinhart Helmke, the Executive Director of UNOPS, a German national, who had originally told him about the IFC.

On Thursday, Reinhart returned my call after his secretary, Sereme, asked that my call would be returned as Reinhart was holding a staff meeting that very minute. She said she was familiar with the name International Finance Consortium and, of course, Professor Ayensu but her boss would be returning my call after she took my international numbers and my name.

Twenty four hours later, Mr. Reinhart, her boss, took off for an international assignment. They had tried to reach me but could not get through, she said, and offered to refer the next competent person, the Executive Deputy Director, Mr. Bisrat Aklilu.

With the comments of the Director, the only real plank supporting the story appears to have collapsed, leaving the other option of a miracle, or in the minds of more fertile people, tainted money as yet another faint possibility.