Railway scandal
... The Mystery Continue To Deepen
... Govt Owns 20% of ?2 company?
Whilst in town last week, self-styled Managing Director of United Rail International (URI), Matthew Bruce Burrows, leading the delegation in talks with the NPP Government Team to take over the Ghana Railway Company Limited (GRC), informed Ghanaians that the United Rail (Ghana) Limited Consortium formed by the URI, Trackbed Foundation - no more Trackbed (UK) Ltd as stated by the minister of Harbors and Railways, Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Akumfi (read) - and the RailRoad Development Corporation of the USA (RRDC) was backed by the billion-dollar worth ?Trackbed Foundation? incorporated in the Isle of Man.
He would not say anything more about the Foundation, except that its members preferred to remain anonymous and, in his own words, ?do not want to be bombarded by the press?, preferring to be ?angels and not put their heads on the parapet?.
He then dared anyone who was sceptical to check from the Isle of Man.
Well, ?Ghana Palaver? did, though we must admit accessing the information was not easy. And having accessed the information, we now understand why Mr. Bruce Burrows was so confident, because he believed that the information could never be accessed by anybody from Ghana.
What we have found out though will make Ghanaians marvel and wonder whether there is something wrong with the NPP Government that we elected into office.
The full name of the Foundation is ?The Trackbed Foundation Limited?.
It was incorporated in the Isle of Man on 1st March 2004, just around the time that URI itself was incorporated and just around the time that the GRC divestiture was about to be called in.
It is a private company limited by guarantee and having a share capital.
The total share capital of Trackbed Foundation is one hundred pounds (?100), divided into 100 ordinary shares of ?1 each, and the limit of liability of each shareholder is ?10.
The Foundation as at now has two shareholders ? Waterstreet One Limited of No. 2 Water Street, Ramsey, Isle of Man 1M8 13P, which owns one share valued at ?1, and Waterstreet Two Limited, also of No. 2 Water Street, Ramsey, Isle of Man 1M8 1JP, which also owns one share valued at ?1.
Thus in all, the total value of subscribed shares is ?2!
The first Directors of the Foundation were Peter Joughin Cannell, a Chartered Secretary, of Crosh Beg, Ballacross, Andreas, Isle of Man, and Clive Ronald Needham, a Chartered Accountant, of No. 56 Howe Road, Onchan, Isle of Man.
The two accepted to be Directors on 26th February 2004.
The first Secretary of the Foundation was the same Director, Peter Joughin Cannell of Crosh Beg, Ballacross, Andreas, Isle of Man.
On 1st March 2005, after the URI scandal had broken in Ghana, Peter Joughin Cannell resigned as Secretary and was replaced by Stone Limited. The address of Stone Limited? You guessed it ? No. 2 Water Street, Ramsey, Isle of Man!
Incidentally, the signature of Peter Joughin Cannell, who resigned as Secretary, is the same as the signature of the person who signed for and on behalf of Stine Limited as the newly appointed Secretary of The Trackbed Foundation. Meaning? Peter Joughin Cannell, the human being, resigned as Secretary, formed a Company called Stone Limited, and made the inanimate company the Secretary of the Foundation. The question is, why?
With regards to the required statutory declaration regarding preparation of accounting statements and the maintenance of accounting records, Mr. Peter Joughin Cannell, who resigned as Secretary on 1st March 2005 but also signed for and on behalf of Stone Limited as the new Secretary, this time signing as Director, stated as follows:
?The Company was incorporated on 1st March 2004 and is not yet required to prepare its first set of financial statements?.
This is the Company that the NPP Government is expecting to bankroll the million-dollar GRC rehabilitation works ? a Company whose total share capital is ?100, whose shareholders? maximum liability is ?10 each, and which so far has been subscribed to by only two shareholders with one share each worth ?1 each!
Mr. Matthew Bruce Burrows, in his interview with Radio Gold?s James Agyenim-Boateng last Wednesday stated that The Trackbed Foundation ?mostly finances investments in Africa?. This Foundation was founded barely one year ago and has not even prepared its first set of financial statements. When did it finance investments in Africa; in which African countries are those investments; and what is the amount of each investment?
These are the questions that Professor Christopher Ameyaw-Ekumfi, Minister of Ports, Harbours and Railways, Mr. J. K. A. Wiredu, Acting Executive Secretary, Divestiture Implementation Committee, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, Minister of Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City and Matthew Bruce Burrows, self-styled Managing Director of URI, must answer.
Our USA collaborators in this investigation have become so alarmed and smelt a rat so badly that they have reported the whole transaction to the Department of Homelands Security of the USA.
So far, the suspicion is that this is either a money-laundering operation on a big scale, or is an outright scam. Whichever way it is, the NPP Government is likely to come out very badly bruised and very badly embarrassed and with a lot of rotten eggs splashed on its face.
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