Yaw Osafo-Maafo
Senior Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo has responded to claims by the
Auditor General, Daniel Yaw Domelevo, that he made the government pay a private
firm—Kroll and Associates—$1 million for no work done.
Mr. Domelevo had earlier served noticed that he would surcharge the
Senior Minister if he failed to provide evidence of actual work done by the private
firm to warrant the payment.
But Mr. Osafo-Maafo, in a letter addressed to the Auditor General
dated 8th October 2019, sought to set the record straight on the matter.
He said approval for request for single source procurement of
professional services was obtained contrary to claims by the Auditor General
that he failed to seek approval from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).
On the accusation that the Senior Minister through the Finance
Ministry made full payment of more than $1 million to Kroll and Associates with
no proof of work done, Mr. Osafo-Maafo said, “Proofs of work done by Kroll and
Associates are contained in their respective reports submitted to the Office of
the Senior Minister, COCOBOD, Bank of Ghana and Economic and Organized Crime
Office(EOCO),” adding “the consultancy service with Kroll is ongoing and
expected to continue for a period of four years.”
The letter to the Auditor General also revealed that “one of Kroll’s
reports for work done was in respect of Lithovit agro-chemicals supplied by
Seidu Agongo to COCOBOD for USD106,541,589.82 which is now the subject of a
case in the High Court … The work done by Kroll in this case included Bank
Analysis and Supplier Overview which disclosed that 90% of the revenue Seidu
Agongo earned from COCOBOD was from agro-chemicals sales
amounting to USD 106,541,589.82 which has turned out to be worthless.”
The Senior Minister further stated that Kroll was still conducting investigations into several other cases for the Government of Ghana. Besides, the firm is assisting in assets recoveries and prosecution.
By Melvin Tarlue
