$7m Company Sold For $2.7m

The Independent newspaper has uncovered that Penang Shipyard Company (PSC), a Malaysian Company fleeced Ghana to the tune of $4.3m in the purchase of Tema Shipyard and Dry Dock Corporation, now, PSC Tema Shipyard during the NDC regime in 1997.

The then DIC, headed by Emmanuel Agbodo, conspired with the Malaysian company to rip Ghana off and sold to PSC Industries, the Tema shipyard and dry dock, then valued at $7,150,000m, for a paltry $2.7m.

Out of $2.7m the Malaysians paid only $500,000 during the first quarter of 1997. $200,000 was paid out of the said amount to the DIC while the rest went into rent and furnishing of the houses of the expatriate staff of the company, the paper reports.

Investigations further revealed that the Malaysian company came without a working capital and that the divested company operated on the account of the old company-Tema Shipyard and Dry Dock Corporation for well over three months.

A statement of claim in the DIC’s claims cast doubt on the genuiness of the divestiture deal between the two parties.

The total value of the company in 1996 was $7,150,000 out of which the value of 60% costing $4.2m was sold to the Malaysians while Ghana government owns 40% of the shares in the company.

But a DIC writ in May 2001 issued by Akunkye Chambers stated that PSC Tema had paid only $420,000 leaving an outstanding balance of $6,700,000 thus creating the impression that the whole company was sold to them and not 60%