Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is claiming the daughters of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo are linked to Service Ghana Auto Group Limited, the company at the centre of the $34.9 million ambulance spare parts deal scandal.
He alleged that, Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta who is related to the President hurriedly signed it off and approved the first payment, said one of the directors of Service Ghana Auto Group Limited, Stephen Okoro, “is apparently a very close business partner and longtime associate to two daughters of President Akufo-Addo.”
“The President’s daughter, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo and Stephen Okoro are the only two directors of SFO Initiatives Limited. SFO Initiatives Limited was incorporated on August 9, 2013. The principal activities of the company are building and road construction, civil engineering works, and food and crop farming.
Mr Ablakwa said his painstaking investigations also revealed that “On the 12th of August, 2020, Stephen Okoro partnered with Gyankroma Akufo-Addo and Edwina Akufo-Addo to incorporate Goodbox Limited. This time Stephen Okoro took up a company secretary role in Goodbox Limited, registered by the President’s daughters to run a gym. President Akufo-Addo’s appointee, Keli Gadzekpo, who was Board Chair of ECG was made a shareholder of Goodbox Limited.”
He added “A few days after, specifically on August 20, 2020, the inseparable three musketeers incorporated Good Grow Limited. Gyankroma Akufo-Addo and Edwina Akufo-Addo are the two directors whilst their ever-loyal confidant, Stephen Okoro took up the position as company secretary.
Interestingly, Good Grow Limited has been established by the presidential daughters and their beloved business associate to grow and farm cannabis. They seem determined to take full financial advantage of Ghana’s new legal cannabis regime which their father spearheaded.”
“From the foregoing, it is now obvious that Ken Ofori-Atta’s midnight approval of the US$ 34.9 million ambulance spare parts deal and subsequent US$ 10 million payment was motivated by familial interest” Mr Ablakwa concluded.
The MP believes that “Ken Ofori-Atta’s primary focus was about making his nieces and their special business partner happy. Insider dealing at its frightening best.
According to him, it is obvious that “the presidential family could not take chances, just in case a new Finance Minister takes over after the reshuffle and decides to sabotage a matter in which the family has a huge interest.”
“The conundrum about why Stephen Okoro’s Service Ghana Auto Group Limited enjoyed such remarkable preferential treatment and a unique dispensation which allowed procurement laws and other laws to be disregarded with impunity now makes sense.”
He said it is now understandable why even the explosive adverse findings contained in the 2022 Auditor-General’s report could not stop Service Ghana Auto Group Limited from securing another uncompetitive US$34.9million spare parts cash-out from the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government.
He also claimed that Stephen Okoro, “the beloved business partner of the Akufo-Addo daughters, appears to be enjoying a golden era of business as he has incorporated 6 other companies between 2017 and 2020.”
Mr Ablakwa, who blew the whistle on the deal and has subsequently filed a petition with the Office of the Special Prosecutor to investigate the deal, shared new documents on Facebook on Wednesday, July 24, suggesting that the Ghana Auto Group Limited got all the favours due to their relationship with the President’s daughters.
The company received 10 million dollars in February after the former Finance Minister reportedly approved payment five days before he left office.
The Auditor-General discovered that Service Ghana Auto Group Limited was illegally engaged and paid for 8 months before the government gave them the contract.
According to the Auditor-General, Service Ghana Auto Group Limited was also asked by the government to provide maintenance services in January 2020 even before the company was incorporated on April 24, 2020.
The North Tongu MP cannot understand why despite the “exceedingly damning findings by the Auditor-General which include procurement breaches, inflated invoices, lack of value for money, fraudulently using staff of the National Ambulance Service and Service Ghana Auto Group Limited’s refusal to refund undeserved monies to government; the government still went ahead to award this new horrendous US$34.9million spare parts deal.”