Ofori-Atta’s COVID-19 Trip Swerves Expected Bloodletting In Parliament

The reported medical evacuation of Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta to the United States for “complications” over his COVID-19 infection has been viewed with suspicion as critics think it was a ploy to avoid facing Parliament’s Appointment Committee.

Ofori-Atta was scheduled to face the Parliamentary Appointment Committee today, February 16, 2021, for some grilling about his stewardship in the first term.

The curious coincidence of his flight to the US has therefore sparked suspicions two basic classes of suspicion.

Some critics have dug up his June 1976 GCE Advanced Level certificate examination results showing what appeared to be utter failures in two important subjects: Economics and Mathematics.

There are reports that after failing the examination, he forged his father’s documents to get into Columbia University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics.

The second set of reasons why he has been flown to the US as rumoured by political opponents and critics is that he is attempting to avoid answering to the potpourri of humongous corruption scandals that have been linked to him directly.

First on the list of scandals is the most current one-the Agyapa Royalties scandal, where he personally used a South African company called Imara Corporate Finance (Pty) to front for his private company, Databank Financial Services in an attempt to rob Ghana of almost US$1.5 billion in gold royalties.

The deal with Databank as the main transaction advisor involved setting up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) in a notorious tax haven with faceless private shareholders and collect Ghana’s mining royalties for “monetisation” on the London Stock Exchange (LSE).

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), the media and the now-resigned Special Prosecutor, Martin Amidu, saw through the fraud and raised red flags. This led to the practical death of the deal.

Indeed, global anti-corruption organisation, Transparency International had written to British regulators to block the listing of Agyapa on the LSE.

Shortly before the Agyapa deal, Mr. Ofori-Atta was named in another major scandal. This time, it was his reported machinations through the Power Distribution Company (PDS) to capture the state electricity company, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). 

The PDS deal involved private companies sneaked into the US Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) programme to pump some US$500 million to “rescuing” the dwindling fortunes of the ECG.

The deal involved the local partners and their foreign partners raising matching funds of another US$500 million to push the deal through.

However, the entire decision-makers in the PDS deal had a direct connection to Ken Ofori-Atta. Dr. Esson-Benjamin, the CEO of the Millenium Development Authority (MIDA), is a partner to Mr. Ofori-Atta and was a Director of the Enterprise Group, a company owned by the Finance Minister 

Also, at the time of signing the PDS deal, ECG’s Board Chairman was Keli Gadzekpo, the Chief Executive of the Enterprise Group and a direct business partner, and childhood friend to Mr. Ofori-Atta.

The scandals linked to Mr. Ofori-Atta are countless. Some include the fact that Databank Financial Services is the main government broker in the Eurobond deals of the government. His company earns commission on every Eurobond debt that Ghana secures. Consequently, this has led him to lead more Eurobond transactions than any other administration in Ghana’s history.

More scandals such as the Aker Energy, Exxon Mobil, financial sector clean-up, capturing of the Insurance and financial services industry in Ghana using his company the Enterprise Groups, among others, have all been linked to him.

Before he became Finance Minister, he was battling an earlier scandal-the Obotan scandal, involving him and his partner Keli Gadzekpo who reportedly attempted to hijack lands belonging to the Social Security and National Investment Trust (SSNIT) for a phony housing project.

Ken Ofori-Atta’s scandals would have given Parliament’s Appointment Committee a field day, particularly as his confirmation for the position would mostly depend on parliamentarians from the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) who sway majority votes on the committee.