US$200K appearance fee: Bawumia was unaware of Adu Boahen's deals - OSP report

The Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) on October 30, 2023, released its report on a corruption and corruption-related offence probe into the affairs of axed Minister of State at the Ministry of Finance, Charles Adu Boahen.

Adu Boahen was captured in Anas Aremeyaw Anas' investigative documentary 'Galamsey Economy' that aired in 2022, wherein he was accused of influence peddling and receiving dollar gifts from undercover agents disguised as investors.

One key issue from the documentary was Charles' allusion that Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia will be a crucial person to send the investors to and that it would require that they pay an amount of US$200,000 to facilitate a meeting in that regard.

Bawumia's aide issued a statement denying the said claim and called for a probe into the matter before Adu Boahen's conduct was formally referred to the OSP for probe by president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The OSP in their report stated that Bawumia was not aware of the transaction that the minister was conducting. Whiles the minister coud not be accused of corruption, the OSP said his actions amounted to influence peddling.

What the OSP said about Bawumia

In the high political office he occupied, it ought reasonably to have occurred to Mr. Adu Boahen that his bargain for twenty percent (20%) of the value of the

proposed investment and his receipt of a cash gift of Forty Thousand United States dollars (US$40,000.00) from the supposed sheikh was outrightly improper.

Mr. Adu Boahen exhibited lack of sound judgment. His claim that he accepted the cash gift to avoid offending the supposed sheikh lies very thinly; and his suggestion of the payment of an appearance fee of Two Hundred Thousand United States dollars (US$200,000.00) to the Vice President was quite reckless – especially as the Vice President was unaware of the business he was

conducting and had not tasked him to demand money of whatever description on his behalf.

All the indices point to the conclusion that Mr. Adu Boahen’s principal motivation was his own personal gain though he intimated to the supposed sheikh that he was driven by the potential developmental benefits to Ghana of the proposed investment.

See the full report below: