Big Corruption Scandal under Mills, Is Our President A Crook?

Is President Mills a crook? In 1973 when Richard Nixon of USA was going through the pains of watergate scandal, he blurted out to the whole nation of USA , "Your President is not a crook" and I hope President Mills will address this issue by issuing a terse statement that;Your President is neither a crook nor corrupt because his silence on this issue is very troubling indeed. What issue am I talking about? 'Like the SCANCEM and the Mabey & Johnson bribery scandals which rocked the NDC, it has taken another legal case, this time by Mr Barker-Homek against his former employers, to expose the alleged corruption taking place currently in Ghana’s energy sector.'

In 2009, barely a year after NDC assumed office, the Mills/Mahama administration functionaries of the NDC allegedly received at least US$1 million dollars in bribery payments from TAQA, the United Arab Emirates based majority shareholder of the Aboadze thermal plant. Moreover, according to confessions of TAQA’s former Chief Executive Officer, in its bid to triple the output of its Takoradi Power Station (110MW), TAQA paid multimillion dollar bribes to Ghanaian politicians in the energy sector in 2009, the year that TAQA sought approval for its expansion.'

How did the NDC manage to extract one million a year from TAQA? According to Mr Barker-Homek who is suing the UAE state-owned energy firm TAQA in a US court,in order to obtain authorization for expansion to triple its output was obtained by inflating the official price of the expansion works” and then paying part of the surplus to Government officials, according to Peter Barker-Homek, the CEO of TAQA at the time. This lawsuit brought by Barker-Homek against TAQA is being adjudicated at District court in Detroit, USA. The case is Barker-Homek v. Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC, 2:10-cv-13448, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan (Detroit). Mr Barker Homek sent a detailed letter to the securities and Exchange commission on May 12 2011 and revealed in detail how TAQA made standard corrupt payments of US$1 million a year to Ghana government officials.

Does it seem familiar? Inflating the cost of projects and paying part of the surplus money to government officials in this NDC administration? That is the modus operandi of this corrupt Mills administration. Six classroom blocks that cost 80,000 cedis to build in 2008 now cost 260,000 cedis to build and it is alleged NDC officials have inflated the cost of building and taking their cut from the inflated prices. No wonder people in this administration who couldn't even afford to rent a two bedroom apartments are now putting up mansions. The 10 billion STX housing project is even alleged to have been inflated as much as 40% by the crooks in Mills government with the Vice-President, John Mahama as the leader of this pack of crooks.

The question then is; IS PRESIDENT MILLS AWARE ABOUT THIS SCANDAL ABOUT TO BLOW OUT IN HIS FACE IN A USA COURTROOM? Is President Mills going to play offense by exposing the officials in his administration who are involved in this scandal by dismissing and prosecuting them in our courts before the name of our country is dragged through the mud again as happened in the Scancem scandal? We are getting fed up by NDC corrupt administrations and if Atta Mills is as saintly as he paints himself to be, it is about time he starts ruling the country to reflect his 'squeeky clean' character because it doesn't matter how clean he personally is, an Angel cannot preside over a satanic individuals in his administration without cracking the whip or he might not be as incorruptible as he is portraying himself to be. IS AGYA ATTA ON THE TAKE ON THIS TAQA CORRUPTION SCANDAL? Until President Mills surmmons courage and start acting like a real President and address these pertinent issues that continue to plague his administration instead of always being mum and hoping for the issue to go away, his administration will continue to receive low marks for performance.

President Mills continues to pontificate and sermonize more than the Pope when he presides over one of the most corrupt governments ever to rule our country. Within two years of this administration, we have seen some deputy ministers and Presidential Aides who were sharing one bedroom accomodations with their mothers building mansions or two with a salary of just about $3,000 a month. Where did some of these people who never work a day in their lives, e.g Ablakwa or not gainfully employed, like Fiifi Kwetey who was hawking paperback books on Accra Kumasi bound buses manage to accumulate their wealth in such a short span?

Fellow Ghanaians, are we soo forgiving that our Politicians continue to steal without care and we continue to allow them without doing anything about it? If these Politicians fail to change their corrupt ways. there will be a people revolution to clean up the mess and that revolution is not going to be like the fraud one perpetrated on us by another NDC corrupt and murderer leader, Efo Rawlings.

During the court proceedings of the scancem scandal, it was revealed that between 1993 and 1998, a total of US$1,690,000 dollars was transferred to a Barclays Bank account and a total of US$2,460,000 was paid into a Unibank account during the same period.The court proceedings also showed that Scancem management believed at the time that the money lodged in the Barclays account, as intended, went to Nana Konadu and that of Unibank went to PV Obeng, then the de facto prime minister of the Rawlings administration.

The same Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings was accused of having taken a 17 million dollars check issued to Ghana as part of our shares that we sold to the new company that took over from Scancem, up till now, nobody has been able to tell Ghanaians what happened to that check. Atta Mills also paid 5 million dollars to the Rawlingses to buy their loyalty in a court case that was not adjudicated to its conclusion. Why do we continue to vote for these thieves who sold 300 Ghanaian companies to themselves which they didn't even pay for? Konadu Agyeman took Nsawam Ghanacan as her personal property under the guise of the so called 31st December movement. When was the last time did this company publish is yearly accounts to the shareholders if there is any? Are we cowards we will allow these yahoos to take us for a ride? Enough is enough, NDC thieves and kleptomaniacs.

Justice Sarpong

Houston, Texas