Scandalous Pandora Papers: Ghana’s Name finally pops up

The dragnet of the global-scale investigative revelations by a consortium of 600 journalists who released dirty files of wealth diversion to tax havens by the rich and powerful has seen Ghana mentioned for the first time.

According to Ghanabusinessnews.com, one of the consortiums of the global investigation, Ghanaian officials may be complicit in a series of suspicious contracts awarded to a supposed Israeli company, Amandi Holdings. Investigations by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed that Amandi is in actual fact not registered in Israel, but in a tax haven that makes hiding of its true ownership or beneficiaries easy.

“…company is so well masked that the Ghanaian authorities believe it’s an Israeli company, and the brothers are not known in Ghana. In a report by the Finance Committee of Parliament on one major energy contract that Amandi was given, the then Minister of Energy for Ghana told the Committee that Amandi Energy Ghana is a joint venture company owned by Amandi Group of Companies and Superlock Technology Limited (STL) of Israel. But the leaked Pandora Papers show that the Amandi Group and STL are all registered as offshore companies and our investigation has established that they are not registered in Israel,” Ghanabusinessnews reported over the weekend.

The global scandal nicknamed the ‘Pandora Papers’ has already named dubious wealth transfers by the Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta and powerful politicians and businessmen in Nigeria, but Ghana had not been mentioned until now.

According to the report, Amandi had been given juicy contracts for years by successive Ghanaian governments, most of which were awarded under dubious sole-sourced conditions under the Public Procurement Authority (PPA)

Consequently, the offshore company posing as an Israeli company has enjoyed contracts a contract from the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing to construct 368 housing units; it was won a contract to build the headquarters annex of the National Health Insurance Secretariat; and had also won a contract to construct a commercial building for the Ghana Volta River Authority (VRA).

According to the revelations by the ICIJ, the PPA has been opaque in its explanation of why Amandi appeared to be securing all its contracts under sole-sourcing, a condition which is used only during emergencies or when a private government contractor holds the proprietary right to particular services the Ghanaian government seeks.

Indeed, the diverse and mostly generic nature of the contracts to Amandi, makes it extremely difficult to confirm that the company was genuinely entitled to a sole-sourcing route for their contracts. Some of the contracts were awarded within 24 hours.

Amandi is constructing railway lines; sea defence projects; remodelling works for Ghana’s National Health Insurance Secretariat; contract to work on redistribution lines for the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Ltd (BOST); a deal from the Ghana Grid Company to finance and construct the 330kv Aboadze-Prestea Transmission Line; a deal to build a new headquarters for the Ghana Civil Aviation Authority, the Ho Airport, among several others.

There are suspicions that Amandi’s contract may have benefited some Ghanaian politicians directly, hence the unending appetite to award them sole-sourced contracts. And since Amandi is registered in a tax haven, it will be difficult to track the names of these beneficiary politicians in Ghana.

Meanwhile, STL, the sister company of Amandi has been an integral part of Ghana’s presidential and parliamentary elections, most of which had ended up in scandals and suspicion of data manipulation to favour selected political parties.

Under STL’s involvement, Ghana had had two presidential election petitions in 2013 and 2017. All of these petitions were due to controversies about voting results not tallying because of suspected interception from STL’s end.

The Directors of Amandi Holdings are listed as Yaron Tal, Rony Edry, Tomer Edry, Moshe Edree, and Yeheskel Makmal. In the leaked documents, however, the name of the senior Refael Edry, appears as the Beneficial Owner of most companies including Amandi Holdings, but his name doesn’t appear in the public document of project summary of the Amandi Energy project in Ghana, raising concerns of a plausible cover-up.

The Pandora Papers is a leak of almost 12 million documents that reveal hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world’s rich and powerful.

“More than 600 journalists in 117 countries have been trawling through the files from 14 sources for months, finding stories that are being published this week,” the report published a week ago read.

BBC Panorama and the Guardian have led the investigation in the UK, while, journalists like Emannuel K. Dogbevi of GhanaBusinessnews.com from Ghana was on call.

The Pandora Papers leak includes 6.4 million documents, almost three million images, more than a million emails and almost half a million spreadsheets, according to a report by the BBC.

It says the files expose how some of the most powerful people in the world – including more than 330 politicians from 90 countries – use secret offshore companies to hide their wealth.

Source: Whatsupnewsghana