Transfer of C1.7bn to State chest - Parliamentary Committee

Accra, June 2, GNA - The Public Account Committee of Parliament has recommended that an amount of over 1.7 billion cedis classified by the Agriculture Development Bank, several years ago, as unclaimed transfer be put into the consolidated fund.

"The Controller and Accountant-General is accordingly urged to ensure that the said amount is transferred by June 30, 2006 and the Committee notified," the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Samuel Sallas-Mensah, said on Friday in Parliament after moving a motion for the adoption of the Committee's report on the Auditor-General's report on statements of foreign exchange receipts and payments of the Bank of Ghana for 2002.

Mr Sallas-Mensah said the audit report stated that the Food and Agriculture Ministry entered into a contract in 1997 with Delta Foods Limited of the US for the supply of maize by the Company at a cost of 20.3 billion cedis, however, the Ministry delayed in payment of the contract sum and the Company instituted legal actions in Ghana and the US to recover the amount.

He said the Ghana Government was ordered by a US court to pay the amount to the Company and Government finally paid the original contract sum of 4.6 million dollars in March 2002 and the remaining incidental cost of 4.9 million dollars was settled in April of the same year. Mr Sallas-Mensah said an Accra High Court ordered the Ministry to sell the maize and proceeds paid into a special account part of which should be used to settle the Ministry's indebtedness.

He said an "escrow account was accordingly opened by the Agriculture Development Bank and the proceeds from the sale lodged into the account.

He said the Committee recently obtained a bank statement on the operations of the escrow account and the information revealed that as at May 24, 2006 the balance on the account was 1,715,886,000.00 cedis and the amount classified as unclaimed transfer.