Revealed! How Akufo Addo Was Silenced In Bribe-Infested Tema Port Contract

The Akufo Addo administration’s suspicious U-turn renegotiating the controversial multi-million-dollar Meridian Services (MPS) contract has reinforced widely held suspicion suspicions that the administration has become bought in the deal involving the restructuring of the Tema Port.

The contract was awarded in 2014 by the John Dramani Mahama administration under conditions that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration had flagged as dubious and had consequently prompted Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to constitute a committee headed by the then NPP MP for Tema East and Deputy Transport Minister, Daniel Nii Kwartei Titus-Glover to investigate the deal described as “lacking of transparency and ethical discipline”.

The first suspicious move by President Akufo Addo immediately he won power in 2016, was to second Peter Mac Manu, his Campaign Manager to the board of the MPS. At the same time, the President appointed Mac Manu to Chair the Board of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), the state port authority that the MPS had virtually taken over their business. 

With the appointment of Mr. Mac Manu onto the two conflicting boards, President Akufo Addo had essentially instituted a conflict of interest situation that would have made it difficult for the GPHA to be able to claw back anything that the NPP had claimed it was losing in the MPS deal.

Meanwhile, Africa Confidential, the renowned investigative newsletter has been digging up dirt around the MPS deal which centres around French billionaire Vincent Bolloré whose logistics company, Africa Logistics, partnered with the Danish shipping giant Maersk’s ports arm, APM Terminals.

The deal culminated in the “a hugely profitable” container terminal at Ghana’s Tema Port in July 2019. 

According to Africa Confidential, the concessions Bolloré won from Ghana are similar to those which he obtained for his operations at the port of Lomé, Togo, in return for financing a top political consultancy to help the country’s president, Faure Gnassingbé, win re-election in 2010.

Bolloré has a reputation for heavily bribing political actors in the countries he operates in and even help them win elections and there are speculations among the intelligence community that he may have parleyed with the Akufo Addo administration, hence its sudden cold feet in going after the contract that it had heavily criticised before coming to power.

Already, a few months ago, he and Bolloré and two of his fellow executives admitted, in a plea bargain, to bribing the Togolese president in exchange for favours at the port, and were fined €375,000 each. The trial judge was reportedly so shocked by the corruption that had transpired between the Togolese President and Bolloré that she rejected details of the plea bargain and ordered a trial of the executive.

In the latest Africa Confidential report that has already caused a stir in Ghana, it has seen a secret ministerial report drafted by officials of the Akufo Addo administration which concluded that the terms of the agreements between MPS and the Ghanaian government was so tilted against Ghana’s interests that it was recommended to be renegotiated.

The report was submitted in February 2018. Yet, the Akufo Addo administration which commissioned the investigation to probe the MPS contract has for almost three years refused to do anything about the deal and has okayed the Chairman of GPHA to curiously serve on the board of MPS in what smacked of conflict of interest that could only be inferred to as complicity in the deal.

MPS holds 70% rights over the Container Terminal, with Ghana holding only 30%, but that share to Ghana had been surreptitiously slashed to 15% under the Mahama administration. The Akufo Addo administration promised to restore the share back to 30%.

The Ministerial committee chair Titus Glover called for a renegotiation of the contract, leading to the sacking of Paul Asare Ansah who was then the Director-General of the GPHA. The Danquah Institute founded by Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, a cousin of President Akufo Addo, had strongly protested against the deal and had even promised to sue the parties involved in the deal.

However, suddenly, the Danquah Institute went silent and President Akufo Addo would later appoint Edward Asomani to the National Security. Mr. Asomani was the lead crusader at the Danquah Institute who was leading the planned suit against MPS.

Meanwhile, the promise to restore Ghana’s 30% shareholding in the deal, had actually caused Ghana more than it would have if it had maintained the 15%.

Africa Confidential says its research had discovered that GPHA has only restored its 30% equity in MPS by buying back the 15% at enormous cost. 

Africa Confidential says its research had discovered that GPHA has only restored its 30% equity in MPS by buying back the 15% at enormous cost. 

“GPHA, we were told, has borrowed the money from the other shareholders. The loan will be repaid out of future revenues and royalties from port operations. Little-noticed reports in the Ghanaian media agree. One said Ansah was ordered to accept a high price to restore GPHA’s 30% stake; GPHA had to give up for 10 years half of the revenues it would otherwise have expected to earn from port operations in payment,” Africa Confidential stated.

“This was on top of the already immense tax giveaways MPS had already received. We asked MPS and the Transport Ministry if this was how GPHA’s original equity had been restored but received no answer. Another report said, ‘90% of the dues retention goes to MPS, while the GPHA has a 10% stake from year one to the 10th year.’ Both the company and the government can now, accurately, portray GPHA as owning 30% of MPS, but they will not admit to the halving of the public share or the immense cost of its restoration,” the investigative report read.