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Whatsup News can report that between 2018 and 2010, close relations and friends of President Akufo Addo have been greased with a total of GHC 4.6 million of Ghana’s oil funds from the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC).
Whatsup News has intercepted several official memos dating from 2018 to 2020 showing that the President’s cousin and Chief of Akyem Abuakwa, Okyehene Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori-Panin; the First Lady Rebecca Akufo-Addo and the President’s right-hand man (Senior Minister) Yaw Osafo Marfo have all received donations totalling a whopping GHC 4.6 from the GNPC, in what has raised questions about a possible act of duress.
For instance, Mrs Akufo Addo in 2018, in a memo signed by the Board Secretary, Matilda Ohene, was given GHC 750,000 for her foundation-The Rebecca Foundation. Subsequent official memos in 2019 and 2020 shows that the foundation received GHC 120, 000 each, summing up to approximately GHC 1 million received since 2018.
In 2020, the Rebecca Foundation claims the GHC 120,000 donation from the GNPC will be spent on a palm oil and palm kernel oil for producers in the Mpohor District.
For the Okyehene, who is the chief of the President’s hometown, GNPC was compelled to part with GHC 2.1 million between 2018 and 2020. A breakdown of the funds shows that a sum of GHC 1.5million was given to the Okyehene between 2018 and 2020 to plant 26 million trees.
In 2019 when the Okyehene was celebrating his 20th Anniversary as the Chief of Akyem Abuakwa, the Ohene’s office was given donations totally GHC 300,000. However, curiously, a memo dated January 28, 2020 has again allocated GHC 300,000 to the Okyehene for his 20th Anniversary, despite the fact that 2020 is not exactly the Okyehene’s 20th anniversary but his 21st anniversary.
For the Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo, Whatsup News is in possession of a letter signed by him and addressed to the GNPC, asking for a “donation” so that the Akufo Addo administration can implement the much talked about “Ghana Beyond Aid” policy.
“As you are aware, the President’s vision of ‘Ghana Beyond Aid’ is to be developed into a Charter…The Committee wishes to request the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) to assist this process by providing financial support for some of the planned activities. The GNPC has in the past supported key interventions of national relevance,” Osafo Marfo wrote as he lists a plethora of activities the Ghana Beyond Aid Committee had purportedly lined up.
Last year, when news of similar donations broke, the Akufo Addo administration was subjected to serious public backlash. However, shortly afterwards in 2020, the GNPC has once been compelled to make the exact same donations that was strongly criticised in 2019.
Critics are wondering why the GNPC should be spending so much money on areas that are clearly outside their core business and also, why such spending to the Okyehene-a cousin and chief of the President’s hometown should be enjoying such juicy donations from GNPC every year since 2018, while traditional authorities from the Western Region where the entire bulk of Ghana’s oil wealth is being produced from, have largely been ignored in their requests.
Since 2016, Chiefs in the Western Region have asked for a development authority so that the area can benefit from its oil wealth, this call has been largely ignored by successive administrations as Ghana’s oil money increasingly get spent on questionable projects and donations.
Incidentally, the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) has issued statements saying that between 2017 and 2018, more than US$ 700 million of Ghana’s oil funds expected to have been channelled into the Annual Budget Funding Amount (ABFA) has disappeared into thin air.
All calls by civil society groups for the Finance Ministry to account for the amount has fallen on deaf ears.