Exposed! Osafo Maafo Pays Kroll Staff US$ 4,155 Per Hour for 1 Year in “Fraudulent” deal

Even though, last week, an Accra High Court sought to exonerate the dubious Kroll Associates deal struck by Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo to help Ghana recover assets, a recently intercepted document shows that the Senior Minister had paid Kroll approximately US$ 11 million and not the US$ 1 million that he [Osafo Maafo] is facing trial for.

An explosive document released by investigative journalist Kevin Ekow Taylor, shows that how the disgraced Chief Executive Officer of the Public Procurement Authority A.B Adjei, granted the wish of Mr. Osafo Maafo by paying Kroll some US$ 11 million by circumventing legal procurement processes.

In the letter dated November 14, 2017, and with reference number PPA/CEO/1392/11/17, the PPA boss, the Senior Minister and the Minister for National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah agreed to pay nine (9) staff of the UK-based Kroll a whopping US$4,155 an hour; US$ 33,240 a day; US$ 831,000 a month and US$10 million a year.

In the damning letter approving the questionable payments to Kroll, AB Adjei wrote: “In consideration of the explanation provided in your response, Management grants approval to the National Security Council Secretariat to use the Single Source Method in accordance with Section 72(5) (b) of Act 663 as amended to engage Kroll Associated UK Limited to review electronic evidence, Identify assets abroad and manage a joint civil and Criminal Asset Recovery process at the following hourly rates for its consulting staff for a period not exceeding twelve (12) months from the commencement of the assignment.”

The fraudulent PPA boss then went ahead to list nine “consulting staff” of Kroll with the Senior Managing Director earning a whopping $ 750 per hour on every working day for one full year. At the end of the year, his take-home pay was US$ 150,000 every month and US$ 1.8 million a year. 

This placed the Kroll boss (name unknown) on the same pay level as the CEO’s of the biggest companies in the world, using Ghanaian taxpayers’ money.

The least paid on the Kroll staff is the “Analyst” who earns US$ 140 every hour for one year.

Apparently, several correspondences had ensued between the National Security Minister and the PPA boss who unilaterally approved the dubious payment without consulting the PPA board as required by law. “We refer to your letter referenced NSCS121/2VOL.6/566 of 7th November 2017 in response to ours dated 18th October 2017 and referenced PPA/CEO/1264/10/17 on the above subject,” he wrote in the letter.

Yet even before the PPA had approved the contract, the Senior Minister had already given Kroll the go-ahead to start working as early as September 2017 or even earlier, to recover government assets. The questionable contract neither got approval from Parliament nor clearance from the public procurement Authority.

The Auditor-General Daniel Yao Domelevo in his audit report in 2018, blew the lid on the dubious contract to Kroll and insisted that Kroll did no work whatsoever to warrant such huge waste of Ghanaians taxpayers’ money.

A 16th November 2019 memo from the Jubilee House was leaked showing how panic had struck President Akufo Addo when the dubious deal became public, courtesy the Auditor General.

The President through the Chief of Staff, Akosua Frema Osei-Opare, had convened an emergency cabinet meeting over the scandal which was apparently curated by Osafo Maafo on the blindside of President Akufo Addo.

 “Please you are directed by the President to kindly convene an emergency meeting on the Kroll and Associates contract. The President will like to know details of the contract and why the Auditor General, Daniel Yao Domelevo, is accusing the Senior Minister of impropriety,” the memo read.

Mr. Domelevo had set up on the trail of Osafo Maafo, asking him to provide evidence of work done by Kroll. Unfortunately, the Senior Minister had played hide-and-seek with the State Auditor, until after the Auditor slapped a surcharge on the Senior Minister, President Akufo Addo suddenly stepped him, by kicking the Auditor General out under the pretext of asking him to proceed on annual leave.

This was barely 10 days before the Auditor-General was set to appear before the court with his case implicating the Senior Minister.

President Akufo Addo, through his Executive Secretary Nana Asante Bediatuo, got into a heated exchange with Mr. Domelevo who claimed he was not ready for the annual leave that the President was forcefully shoving down on him because he was at the cusp of nailing Mr. Osafo Marfo in court.

President Akufo Addo eventually prevailed and forced Domelevo out of the pursuit. Domelevo’s Deputy, Johnson Akuamoah Asiedu was immediately asked to act in the stead of the State Auditor who had been hounded out of office.

Curiously, A few hours after Mr. Domelevo was shooed out of office, Johnson Akuamoah, immediately wrote to Mr. Osafor Marfo absolving him, and strangely acknowledging that the evidence of work done by Kroll had been submitted and all had checked out.

This is the same evidence that the substantive Auditor General had fruitlessly sought from Mr. Osafo Maafo for several months. 

Indeed, Mr. Maafo and the officials of the Ministry of Finance dragged the Auditor General to the High Court asking that it sets aside the surcharge slapped on him, to which Justice Afia Asare Botwe strangely granted last week.

Critics think that President Akufo Addo had directly colluded with Osafo Maafo in the scandalous Kroll deal, particularly the systematic machinations instigated by the Jubilee House to set Osafo Maafo free using legal gymnastics and the courts.