{"id":449320,"date":"2017-12-22T14:03:49","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T14:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/12\/22\/alan-speaks-on-100000-saga\/"},"modified":"2017-12-22T14:03:49","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T14:03:49","slug":"alan-speaks-on-100000-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/12\/22\/alan-speaks-on-100000-saga\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan speaks on $100,000 saga"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">General News of Friday, 22 December 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>dailyguideafrica.com<\/p>\n<p>2017-12-22<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/83880238.295.jpg\" alt=\"Alan Kyeremateng Cash Trade\" title=\"Alan Kyeremateng Cash Trade\" width=\"295\" height=\"286\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n<p>\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=151125817929577\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=151125817929577\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/1513951429_656_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\"> Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, has cleared the air about the brouhaha generated by the allegation of extortion of monies from expatriate business persons desirous of sitting on the Presidential High Table during the recently-held Ghana Expatriate Business Award event in Accra, dismissing any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on the issue in response to a query from President Akufo-Addo, the minister said that the president was only invited to the function as a special guest of honour \u2013 an invitation which he said the president graciously honoured.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe president was invited as a Special Guest of Honour and he graciously accepted the invitation and attended the event,\u201d he said, explaining that neither he (Alan) nor any of his staffers had anything to do with the organization of the programme.<\/p>\n<p>The opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) had raised issues that the expatriate business community paid to have dinner with the president.<\/p>\n<p>Furthering his explanation, Mr Kyerematen said, \u201cThe management and organization of the event were initiated, directed and coordinated by the event organizers \u2013 the Millennium Excellence Foundation (MEF) \u2013 and facilitated by the Ministry of Trade and Industry in line with its commitment to enhance public-private sector collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The structure, form and content, including the distribution of sponsorship package for the event, according to the minister, are solely attributable to the organizers.<\/p>\n<p>In the response letter, signed by the deputy minister of trade and industry and sighted by the media, Mr Alan Kyerematen stated that he had no link to the sponsorship package.<\/p>\n<p>The minister asserted that in his outfit\u2019s bid to ensure the financial integrity and accountability of the programme, which was agreed upon by the event organizers, insisted that all monies raised in respect of the event be paid into an account held by the ministry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is therefore difficult to imagine how a government institution seeking to extort monies from individuals would insist on issuing official receipts,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>Continuing, Mr Kyerematen said that the organizers were specifically instructed not to collect monies to place persons\/organizations on the Presidential High Table for the event \u2013 and according to him, they provided assurance that they would not breach the instruction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is worth noting that all the business executives who were seated at the Presidential High Table who incidentally were chief executives of some of the top tier corporate entities in Ghana, already have had direct access to the president and do not need to pay monies to interact with him,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n<p>An audit of the event, he said, indicated that an amount of GH\u00a22,667,215.00 was raised against an expenditure of GH\u00a22,367,426.06.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNone of those who sat on the Presidential High Table made a contribution of $100,000 prior to the event as being alleged,\u201d Mr Kyerematen emphasized, adding that from available information to the ministry, there was no extortion or indication of the sort, from any expatriate as being peddled about.<\/p>\n<p>The nomination and selection of the award winners was done by an international audit firm \u2013 KPMG \u2013 the minister disclosed.<\/p>\n<p>The resounding success of the programme, he indicated, found space in the remarks of the expatriate business personalities who graced the event.<\/p>\n<p>Following the brouhaha over the alleged extortion, President Akufo-Addo demanded a written explanation from the minister, according to Information Minister Mustapha Abdul Hamid.<\/p>\n<p>In a correspondence yesterday, the information minister explained that the trade minister\u2019s response to the president\u2019s demand on the allegation indicated that there was no extortion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe facts, as reported to the president, do not disclose any wrongdoing on the part of the minister or any government official,\u201d Mr Hamid pointed out in his correspondence to the media.<\/p>\n<p>Continuing, he said, \u201cThe president has therefore asked him to put forth the facts before the Ghanaian public.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 50 updated by: 63 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>General News of Friday, 22 December 2017 Source: dailyguideafrica.com 2017-12-22 Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kwadwo Kyerematen, has cleared the air about the brouhaha generated by the allegation of extortion of monies from expatriate business persons desirous of sitting on the Presidential High Table during the recently-held Ghana [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":442543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-449320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-local-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Alan speaks on $100,000 saga - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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