Okudzeto Ablakwa writes: How Prof. Frimpong-Boateng Saved Ghanaians from a US$88.24m Contentious Judgment Debt

Since the release of Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s cataclysmic galamsey report by Kevin Taylor, I have observed a relentless and really despicable campaign targeted at the credibility of the internationally acclaimed heart surgeon.

The Akufo-Addo presidency has led the charge describing Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s shocking revelations as mere “hearsay” and a “catalogue of personal grievances.” Other officials at the presidency such as Lord Commey have even questioned the Professor’s “state of mind” when he authored the report.

The President’s cousin and sidekick Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko has had his own version of choice words for the Professor describing him as a man with a “weak understanding of his ministerial position.” Majority Group Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu joined the fray questioning why Prof. Frimpong-Boateng did not present the report to cabinet— a rather lame proposition considering that the Frimpong-Boateng 36-page report had indicted a number of his colleague Cabinet Ministers.

Then there have been other NPP functionaries on the extreme fringes such as Chairman Wontumi and Charles Bissiw who have gone as far as to directly accuse Prof. Frimpong-Boateng of equally being guilty as those his report exposed — discredited claims in the face of the recent CHRAJ exoneration of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng.

Having observed the ongoing vicious, atrocious and well-orchestrated campaign of calumny by a powerful but wounded NPP galamsey cartel seeking to damage the credibility of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng, raise questions about his true motives and dent his patriotic credentials; I decided to embark on an independent assessment of the Professor’s tenure as Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation.

An objective review of piles of documents I have intercepted from multiple sources brings me to an irresistible conclusion that Prof. Frimpong-Boateng served his country with the highest grade of integrity.

The desperate bombardments on his credibility by a complicit NPP galamsey gang are therefore unpatriotic, unwise and a clear case of organized crime fighting back.

I can today reveal that it is to the credit of Prof. Kwabena Frimpong-Boateng’s exemplary integrity and commendable vigilance that the Ghanaian taxpayer was saved from paying a staggering US$88.24million in a controversial judgment debt to a company known as Apex Pollution Control Company Limited (APCCL) in 2020.

Volumes of intercepted documents show that Ghana’s Attorney-General reached the controversial settlement in President Akufo-Addo’s first term after arbitration with Apex Pollution Control Company Limited.

The Attorney General subsequently requested the Ministry of Finance to pay the entire US$88,247,246.63 to APCCL in a letter dated April 16, 2020.

Strangely, though Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation was the supervising ministry for the abortive Apex deal, he wasn’t consulted or made to provide any input by his colleagues in government throughout the various stages until the 6th of July, 2020 when Prof. was presented with a fait accompli by a letter from the Chief Director of the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Patrick Nomo confirming that the records of the Ministry of Finance “indicate that no request was received from the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation” and that the Attorney General’s request of US$88,247,246.63 should be validated and certified by the Internal Audit Unit of Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s ministry. (See evidence of letter attached).

Impressively, and in the utmost interest of Ghana, upon receipt of the Finance Ministry’s letter requesting validation, Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng promptly sent a brutally frank and no holds barred memorandum to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo dated July 21, 2020.

In the Professor’s memo, he exposed how the US$88.24million settlement was reached on his blind side soon after the change of power, the irregularities of the transaction, how NDC Ministers before him could not implement the project and most importantly how he was not in the position to approve the transaction. (See Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s nationalistic Memo to Akufo-Addo attached).

Similar to how President Akufo-Addo treated Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s galamsey report, this memo was totally ignored by the President. The memo remains contemptuously ignored almost three years on.

My ever reliable deep throat sources at the Presidency have narrated how numerous follow-ups and emails to the President’s Secretary from Prof. Frimpong-Boateng on this matter didn’t receive the much needed presidential attention.

The stash of documents in my possession further reveal that after Prof. Frimpong-Boateng successfully blocked the US$88.24million payment when he served as Minister from 2017-2021 by refusing to carry out the requested validation, there is now renewed interest and fresh appetite to revive the deal seeing that Prof., who had acted as a formidable obstacle is no more in the way after President Akufo-Addo left him out of his second term.

It remains a mystery how a minister who remarkably helped the President protect the public purse in line with Akufo-Addo’s own pledge to Ghanaians couldn’t find favour with the President. Probably, Prof. Frimpong-Boateng took his boss’s public assurances too seriously.

From more intercepted official communication on the US$88.24million Apex Judgment Debt, it is obvious the current Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Kwaku Afriyie has departed from Prof. Frimpong-Boateng’s position when one reads his 21st June, 2021 letter to the Minister for Finance.

Strikingly, despite the concerns Prof. Frimpong-Boateng expressed boldly on this matter, there has been no shift in position by the Office of the Attorney-General on their US$88.24million demand from the Finance Ministry. It’s quite ironic when the Chief State Attorney, Mrs. Dorothy Afriyie-Ansah had stated in her arbitration response dated June 25, 2019 that the purported agreements Apex was relying on were unenforceable, there were no PPA and PPP AC approvals and that any incurred loss was self-inflicted due to an indecent haste.

Ghana’s saving grace at the moment is a 14th June, 2022 letter signed by Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta addressed to Minister of Justice and Attorney-General, Godfred Yeboah Dame which exposes a fundamental flaw in how the colossal US$88.24million was arrived at.

The Finance Minister argues convincingly, I must add, that demands for Return on Investment (US$20,006,226.00) and Lost Income (US$61,627,500.00) are essentially the same thing and amounts to double accounting by Apex and their collaborators.

Significantly, in the Finance Minister’s considered view, Apex at best should be entitled to a possible negotiated amount of between US$9.16 — US$9.26million. That’s a fraction of the original claim. (See intercepted Finance Minister’s letter & analysis to AG attached).

From my unimpeachable parliamentary oversight on this matter, both the Attorney-General and the Minister responsible for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation are yet to agree with the Finance Minister’s analysis even though the Finance Ministry sent the AG a reminder earlier this month.

The Finance Ministry’s latest IRR analysis exposing the contentious demands of Apex and their collaborators offer unassailable vindication for Prof. Frimpong Boateng.

Clearly, for this and all Prof. Frimpong-Boateng has done for Ghana, and humanity in general; he must be gloriously celebrated and not viciously vilified.

Now, it is our collective patriotic duty to offer solidarity to the good old Prof. and resolve to defeat the criminal, soulless and murderous gang destroying our environment and waterbodies through galamsey; and equally stop the other group of apparent looters determined to ransack the little left in the battered public purse.

By exposing this US$88.24million controversial, murky and opaque Apex/AG demand on suffering Ghanaian taxpayers living in a collapsed economy, I am hoping that legitimate agitations from the sovereign people of Ghana will sharply curtail the behind-the-scenes shenanigans and foil the elaborate scheme to deplete scarce national resources knowing that Prof. Frimpong-Boateng no longer has power to stop the rot.

Ghanaians can also count on the NDC Caucus in Parliament to thoroughly probe this matter when the House resumes.

SOA’s Oversight shall return with more.

For God and Country.

Ghana First 🇬🇭

By Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa