Why Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom is bad for CPP and Ghana.

( NDUOM and the Serious Fraud albatross Part (2))

Paa Kwesi Nduom believes strongly that his recent attempt to

exploit the brouhaha in the CPP is something worth describing as purposeful

for advancing his political career. The point needs to be made that he may be

sharply ignorant about how Ghanaians perceive him and the fact that he can’t

ignore indicators that he is gradually sinking and becoming irrelevant in

Ghanaian politics. The gradual political wafting of Nduom, a one percent

fanatic, makes one wonder whether he finds himself in a state of climacteric or

not? But one thing is certain and confirms his insignificance to even the

political party he falsefully aligns, the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP).

But certainly his gradual meltdown as a politician demonstrates

another victorious step against Western imperialism and their covert-recruit

programme of methodical minds. Is Nduom, therefore, being exploited to be used in

a deliberate counter-socialist movement in Ghana as have gone on in many

developing countries to deliberately disrupt the progressive development of

such countries? He should begin to reason to note that he is gradually sinking

into the gutters. Readers should freely question and express with vigour the

identity, the source of wealth and the credibility of Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, as a

path is chart for the part (2) of analysis of serious findings made by the Serious

Fraud Office (SFO) on his engagements with the State Enterprises Commission. The

part two (2) is a continuation of the first article (please visit:

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=225025) which

provides a background to the current. Readers may refer to it. We should never

forget that the character of imperialism to undermine efforts by the poor

majority of Ghanaians in pursuing a progressive trend of national planning and

development through the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) has always been smacked by

infiltration of captains of naked-profiteers

has the engine of retrogression and who later find themselves running down a

socialist political party. The analysis of the findings is therefore on course.

The findings of the investigations showed that Deloitte

Haskins & Sells and Dr. Nduom who later registered a Deloitte & Touche

Consulting (West Africa) in Ghana both denied being the originators of the

first proposal. This coincidence of Deloitte Haskins and Sells and Deloitte

& Touche Consultants would later become very significant in the

investigations. Please note that in the event, none of these firms was chosen

for the job. The only interest in the list being that among the Consultants who

later worked for SEC was the name Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, mentioned in the

unsigned proposal from Deloitte & Touche Consultants.

Let us for now ask this simple question. What was the choice

of consultants and the modalities for the choice? Again the allegations state

that the former executive director chose all the consultants who eventually

worked on the State Owned Enterprise Reformed Programme (SOERP) all by himself

without any input from the SEC Board. As a matter of interest, the fraud

investigators found out that even though in the last meeting of the Board on 8th

October 1989 the statement that the consultancy would henceforth be carried out

by “experts on short term basis” was the last word on this issue. These consultancy

experts, according to the investigators, were not identified in the record of

that last board meeting.

Eventually, a record was discovered by the investigators

mentioning some consultants who did work for SEC on the SOERP. It mentioned

among others, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, a Ghanaian resident in Virginia in the USA.

The first contract agreement dated 1st February 1991 was between

“the GOVERNMENT OF GHANA represented by its authorized representative, PNDC

Secretary and Executive Chairman of the SEC and Dr. P. Kwesi Nduom”. The

address for notice under agreement was given as; Dr. P. Kwesi Nduom, Deloitte

& Touche, 1900 M Street NW, Washington, DC 20036.

The contract was to last for 3 months in the first instance

renewable quarterly for one year from 1991. The terms of reference indicated

that Nduom was to “advice on and undertake policy studies concurrently with SEC

staff and other external Consultants

as will be agreed with, the Executive Chairman in the broad subject of

restructuring of SOEs” and other matters related thereto and explicitly stated

in the terms of reference.

Readers should slow down and carefully re-consider their

thoughts about the man Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom. Further examination of these

contracts showed that even though they were Ghanaian contracts they had in some

cases the following curious provisions:

1. Exemptions of the consultants from paying taxes on their consultancy fees to the

revenue in Ghana

2. Per Diem payments for the consultants

3. Return Air tickets (Accra –Washington-Accra) for the consultants.

These provisions where included in

these contracts because the contract forms which were used were originally

meant to be used for consultants working on bilateral agreements. The fraud

investigators believed that the then Executive Chairman might have been convinced

by Nduom, particularly to include these provisions to enable him (Nduom) make

claim to these benefits. It eventually compelled the Executive Chairman to

apply it to other external consultants. It became apparent that this was the

basis of Dr. Nduom’s claim to be treated as a “Foreign Consultant” and

ultimately his claim to have his earnings from the consultancy transferred

abroad.

The pertinent question which arises

then is: were these benefits justified? To answer this question, the SFO

findings revealed an examination of the legal status of these consultants,

especially Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom. The next part, part 3, will therefore aim at

providing answers.

Prof. Araba Moustache