Ofori-Atta’s GHC 10 million Rogue Insurance Scandal Circles AP&L and Enterprise Insurance

Whatsup News can confirm that it took two separate conflict of interest situations to divert Ghana’s GHC 10million insurance package to two companies linked to both the Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and the former Commissioner of the National Insurance Commission (NIC) Lydia Lariba Bawa.

Undercover investigations reveal that out of the GHC 10 million that the Akufo Addo administration set aside as insurance package for frontline health workers fighting the deadly COVID-19 fight,  private companies belonging to the finance minister who signed the deal and a ghost company, AP&L Consult limited owned by the former NIC boss, are pocketing a whopping GHC 2.3 million as “commission”.

An April 14, 2020 Memo from Enterprise Life Insurance confirmed the booty to the two companies: “Your kind approval is needed for the payment of Ghc2, 319,731.99 as commission due to the above-mentioned broker for the group life policy cover for health personnel and allied professionals attending to the Corona Virus (Covid-19) pandemic,” the memo written by Ehead of Corporate Risk/Relations at Enterprise Life, Daniella Asah, said.

 The two companies have essentially formed a symbiotic relationship to divert juicy insurance contracts of the state to themselves. A careful following of the money revealed a systematic trail of a deliberate scheme to use their influence to carve a huge cake of the insurance in public institutions to themselves.

While Enterprise Insurance of Ken Ofori-Atta enjoys all the juicy state-sponsored insurance packages, evidence show reasons to believe that it uses AP&L as a front to throw probing eyes off trail of the alarm bells of conflict of interest that will arise if Enterprise Insurance directly handles these deals that conveniently ensures that the sitting Finance Minister’s private company clinches all the insurance contracts from the state.

Currently, the duo are mostly involved in multi-million dollar insurance services to major state institutions like the Bulk Oil Storage and Transport Company (BOST), Tema Oil Refinery (TOR), the Volta River Authority (VRA), the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) and the State Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).

The duo are also believed to be involved in a GHC 50 million insurance contract with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). Incidentally, the Chairman of the ECG boss is Keli Gadzekpo the long-time friend and business partner of Ken Ofori-Atta.

Meanwhile, AP&L itself appeared to have been incorporated purposely for this task of fronting for Enterprise. The company was incorporated in June 2017. This was during the first year of the Akufo-Addo government.

At the time, Lariba, who is now a Director of the company was the one who issued the company its brokerage license in 2017. The twist is that she used her role as the commissioner of the regulator of the insurance industry to issue an operating license to her private company.

Whatsup News can report that while Lariba was the NIC boss, her husband, a staunch supporter of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), was also working as the Managing Director of GLICO Life Insurance.

The husband and wife quickly set up AP&L, while Lariba cleverly feigned not being part of AP&L at the time of its incorporation, as it would have immediately triggered conflict of interest alarms in the insurance industry.

 She allowed her husband and their son, Prince, to be shareholders. Then after issuing the company its brokerage license, she left the NIC in 2017. Immediately after leaving the NIC job, she went to the Registrar General’s Department to have the list of directors for AP&L changed to include her good self.

By this time, her husband had also left GLICO and joined the family company. However, the new list of directors for the AP&L was never returned to the Registrar General’s Department, effectively allowing the company to hide its true owners from prying eyes. This way, it is hard to trace the company even though it is operating as a registered firm.

AP&L’s physical address is listed as House No. 43-44, Community 25, Tema. The company has an active website. On the website, Lydia Lariba Bawa, is listed as a “Co-Founder” of the company while Alfred Ofori Kurago is listed as “managing consultant.”

Alfred Ofori Kurago, Romeo Bugyei and Lydia Lariba Bawa are listed as Directors, while Alfred Ofori Kurago and Prince Ofori-Kurago are listed as shareholders. Prince Ofori-Kurago is the sone of Lariba Bawa and Alfred Kurago.

According to Whatsup News’ investigations, this ghosting explains why in the banking documents of the company, Lariba and her husband, Alfred are listed as the only directors.

Enterprise, which is owned by Ken Ofori-Atta and his wife, was sole-sourced the GHC 10million contract to frontline health workers for the fight Against COVID-19.