President Akufo-Addo’s two daughters may be connected to Service Ghana Auto Group Limited, the business at the center of the’shady’s $34.9 million ambulance spare parts deal, according to fresh information that North Tongu Member of Parliament Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has made public.
On Wednesday, July 24, Mr. Ablakwa, who revealed the deal and has since filed a petition with the Office of the Special Prosecutor to look into potential corruption, shared new documents on Facebook that purportedly showed the Ghana Auto Group Limited received preferential treatment because of its connection to the president’s daughters.
Five days prior to his departure, the former Finance Minister allegedly approved payment, resulting in the corporation receiving $10 million in February of this year.
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 the government, the government still went ahead to award this new horrendous US$34.9 million spare parts deal.”
Mr Ablakwa, in his latest revelation linking President Akufo-Addo’s daughters to the deal and why he believes the Finance Minister who’s related to the President hurriedly signed it off and approved the first payment, said one of the directors of Service Ghana Auto Group Limited, Stephen Okoro, “is apparently a very close business partner and longtime associate to two daughters of President Akufo-Addo.”
“The President’s daughter, Gyankroma Akufo-Addo,, and Stephen Okoro are the only two directors of SFO Initiatives Limited. SFO Initiatives Limited was incorporated on August 9, 2013. The principal activities of the company are building and road construction, civil engineering works, and food and crop farming.
Mr Ablakwa said his painstaking investigations also revealed that “on the 12th of August, 2020, Stephen Okoro partnered with Gyankroma Akufo-Addo and Edwina Akufo-Addo to incorporate Goodbox Limited. This time Stephen Okoro took up a company secretary role in Goodbox Limited, registered by the president’s daughters to run a gym. President Akufo-Addo’s appointee, Keli Gadzekpo, who was the board chair of ECG, was made a shareholder of Goodbox Limited.”
Hon Ablakwa added “A few days after, specifically on August 20, 2020, the inseparable three musketeers incorporated Good Grow Limited. Gyankroma Akufo-Addo and Edwina Akufo-Addo are the two directors whilst their ever-loyal confidant, Stephen Okoro took up the position as company secretary.
Interestingly, Good Grow Limited has been established by the presidential daughters and their beloved business associates to grow and farm cannabis. They seem determined to take full financial advantage of Ghana’s new legal cannabis regime which their father spearheaded.”
“From the foregoing, it is now obvious that Ken Ofori-Atta’s midnight approval of the US$ 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 Ablakwa, 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$34.9million spare parts cash-out from the Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government.
Ablakwa also claimed that Stephen Okoro, “the beloved business partner of the Akufo-Addo daughters, appears to be enjoying a golden era of business as he has incorporated 6 other companies between 2017 and 2020.”
In an interview on the Joy Super Morning Show on Monday, July 24, Mr Ablakwa said President Akufo-Addo’s pledge in opposition not to run a family and friends government did not materialize.
Meanwhile, he announced that this new information has been given to the Special Prosecutor to strengthen their case. He said his interest is to ensure that the government does not pay the additional 24.9 million dollars to the company.
“It is my hope that the OSP will be allowed the free hand to conduct his investigations.
In the interim, let us do everything in our power to prevent the payment of the outstanding US$ 24.9 million. Together, we shall win this battle.”