knowledge of the issue to the admission by Hon Ahenkorah that the Ministry indeed collected the money but returned every pesewa to the MEF. CW1 referred to paragraph 6 of the 21st December, 2017 Press Statement from the Ministry (Exhibit 2) as follows:
“Following the event, the Ministry in collaboration with the event organizers have audited the account for the event and can confirm that an amount of GH¢2,667,215.00 was raised against an expenditure of GH¢2,367,426.06. It is acknowledged that the event organizers, as private sector commercial operators are entitled to a fair return for their efforts in organizing the event. However, it was also agreed with the organizers that a portion of the additional funds realized from the event in excess of expenditure, would be retained to support the organization of the next Awards event.”
8. According to CW1, while in one breath the Ministry had nothing to do with resource mobilisation (as shown in Paragraph 5 of Exhibit 1), in another breath the Ministry acknowledged that it had even raised over GH¢2.6 million (as shown in paragraph 6 of Exhibit 2).
9. He referred to a letter the Ministry wrote to the expatriate businesses on 23rd October, 2017, entitled ‘Ghana Expatriate Business Award -- A Black Tie Event' (Exhibit 3) and read paragraph 6 on the second page as follows:
“Kindly see the attached Criteria and submit your details by the 10th of November 2017 to Mr Kwadwo
Boateng at the KPMG's Office, Abelemkpe in a sealed envelope.”
10. The CW1 also referred to the paragraph entitled ‘Corporate Partnership' which reads:
“We invite you to support the organisation and hosting of this laudable initiative with the benefits attached.”
11. CW1 further referred to paragraph 3 of 21st December, 2017 Press Statement (Exhibit 2) as follows:
“The structure, form, content and distribution of the Sponsorship package for the event are solely attributable to the event organizers, and the Ministry had no role in the design of the said package. For the avoidance of doubt, the letter signed by the Hon Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry which has been sighted in the media had no link to the sponsorship package.”
12. According to the CW1, contrary to the suggestion by MoTI that the letter signed by Hon Ahenkorah had no link to the sponsorship package, the same letter under the heading ‘Corporate Partnership', clearly made reference to an attachment where it indicates “with the benefits attached”.
13. According to him, although the Ministry had stated that the second attachment had no link with the letter signed by Hon Ahenkorah, the footnote of that attachment directs the individual expatriates where to send their cheques to in the Ministry, which enabled the Ministry to collect what they claimed was over GH¢2.6million.
According to CW1, if the second attachment was not part of the letter, how did the expatriates know that they had to send their cheques to Room 308? Without that attachment, they would not have been able to send those cheques to Room 308 for the Ministry to even collect the moneys.
14. CW1 quoted paragraph 3 of Exhibit 1 as follows:
“Upon the conception of the novel idea, the Foundation informed the Government, through the Presidency and further sought partnership with the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the organisation of the first ever award event targeted at recognizing and rewarding the contributions of the expatriate and naturalised expatriate community…”
15. The above statement shows that this novel event was started by the Government and the Presidency. Yet in the Statement that was issued on 21 st December, 2017, by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, paragraph 1 says:
“Neither His Excellency, the President nor any official of the Presidency directly or indirectly, or even remotely was connected with the said event.”
He contended that while in one statement, the whole idea started from the Presidency, in another the Presidency had no remotest connection with the event.
16. According to CW1, paragraph 7 of Exhibit 2 states:
“For the avoidance of doubt, none of the individuals/companies who
sat on the Presidential High Table at the event made a contribution of US$100,000.00 prior to the event as being alleged.”
17. Relying on an online news report of an interview granted by Mr Prince Boakye Boateng of MoTI on Star FM to Mr Francis Abban on Morning Star (Exhibit 4). Quoting from the online report, CW1 stated as follows:
“The Government partnered the Foundation so that the private sector would know that the Government is in full support of the event. We wanted to make sure that moneys paid did not influence who won an award. The moneys were paid into the Ministry of Trade and Industry account because we did not want post-event challenges. Mr Saeed Fakeries (SIC), Chief Executive Officer of Dream Realty and Inesfly also paid US$100,000.00 to sit at the table with the President.”
18. According to CW1, while the Ministry in paragraph 7 of Exhibit 2, informed the public that no one paid US$100,000.00, the PRO who was a member of the Planning Committee stated that somebody had paid US$100,000.00.
19. According to CW1, if the Committee listened attentively to the voice recording that he had submitted, it would realise that both Mr Prince Boakye Boateng and Hon Ahenkorah, kept emphasising that they wanted the expatriates to trust and have confidence in MEF.
20. CW1 further informed the Committee that from the package, those who were to pay US$100,000.00 and US$75,000.00 were to have an exclusive dinner with His Excellency the President at a later date as stated in the sixth row of Exhibit 3.
21. CW1 stated that clearly, he doubts whether the Presidency was not aware of this arrangement. He explained that there was no way anybody could make such a promise if they had not made prior arrangements at the Presidency. All the statements from the Ministry confirms that they wanted to give the whole thing some kind of trust. He believes that all these were done to give the Ministry of Trade and Industry trust.
22. CW1 informed the Committee that he decided to give the Ministry of Trade and Industry the opportunity to clarify the issues raised since he had documentation and was very certain that moneys were collected even when there were denials. He indicated that all that he was seeking to achieve was to caution the Ministry.
According to him if the statement that came from the Ministry on 21st December, 2017 was the response he got at the Committee's meeting, he would not have pursued the matter. It would have exonerated his position that moneys were collected. However, the issue would have been what authority the Ministry used in collecting that money.
CW1 stated that he would have admonished the Ministry to make sure that they regularised how they collect such moneys and spend in accordance with the financial regulations.
CW1 believes that the Ministry might have breached financial regulations. The Ministry collected the money with official receipt and later handed over all the money to MEF. According to him, using official receipt for the purposes of collecting the moneys makes it public money which was supposed to be regulated by financial regulations.
24. CW1 also doubted and questioned the total moneys that were collected as stated by the Ministry. He explained that if even 100 out of the 450 expatriates that were invited paid at least US$15,000.00, the total would be US$1.5million.
By his rough estimation, if the Ministry stated they had taken only GH¢2.6million, he had doubts because of the initial challenges and credibility gap that had been created by the number of contradictory statements.
25. CW1 believed that it was important that Parliament independently looked into this matter, so that first, it would be certain that this unethical thing, where one would partner a private organisation to charge people or raise sponsorship based on proximity to the President, can be settled once and for all.
Even if the Ministry claims they did not know about it, he believes that once they decided to partner them, they cannot exonerate themselves from whatever problem that may have arisen.
26. CW1 indicated that the laws of the country do not allow for this. Even the lobbyists in America and other places are regulated and they even pay taxes. When they do some of these things for charity, the total amount of money is transparently declared and it is not profit making. It is a good idea that the Government introduces a law that would regulate that.
But for people to do it without the necessary regulations, he believes was very unethical. CW1 further stated that for the Ministry to collect moneys that were public moneys and hand it over to private persons was problematic. He believes that this investigation would give Parliament the opportunity to introduce reforms in this area.
27. As to whether the issue is basically a sale of access to the President or some kind of facilitation fees being paid to have access to the President, CW1 responded in the affirmative stating that all the documents he had in his possession point to that.
28. As to whether there was an ethical political concern in the matter, CW1 stated that as public servants like himself, His Excellency the President's time had already been bought by the public and that the public can have access without necessarily having to make any financial contribution or financial payment.
To his mind, if access was used to facilitate and make it easy for anybody in this country to have a dinner with the President, then it is very unfortunate, stating that it can create an avenue for some kind of corruption.
29. As to whether he was aware that the President of the Republic requested for an explanation from CW3 on this matter, CW1 stated that he was not aware. He mentioned that what he heard was that the MoTI had been asked to respond after which the Presidency issued a statement to the effect that there was nothing wrong. He further indicated that he was worried since he did not know the kind of investigation was conducted by the President.
According to him, the President had at his disposal the National Security, the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and all the other Agencies that could be asked to thoroughly investigate the matter but within forty-eight hours, the Presidency said that there was nothing wrong with what MoTI did.
30. When asked whether as a Leader of the second branch of Government, there was a need to repose some trust in the Executive branch with respect to what they do regarding matters that are within the ambit of the powers of the President, CW1 agreed but stated that when there are doubts, Parliament, as representatives of the people with oversight responsibility over the Executive need to look into it; at least, to prove beyond reasonable doubt that, nothing untoward happened.
He mentioned that as a result of the confusion, it would be very difficult for him to believe what the Executive arm has done.
31. When asked whether he agrees with the Ministry's claim that the event was organised with no cost to the taxpayer, CW1 disagreed and stated that although there was no direct contribution from MoTI, certainly he believed that the taxpayer incurred some cost. He explained that the officer who was responsible for collection of the money in Room 308 was paid by the taxpayer.
Also, the Ministers and the President were driven to the event in vehicles fuelled and chauffeur-driven by persons who are paid by the taxpayer. He further indicated that the value book, the receipt that was issued, the General Counterfoil Receipt (GCR) from CAGD was printed with money from the taxpayer.
32. As to why the Motion for Recall of Parliament was not part of the document he supplied to the Committee, he mentioned that since the matter under discussion was a public interest matter referred to the Committee, he did not find it necessary to have attached the Motion to recall the House as part of the documentation to the Committee.
