How Akufo-Addo Cooked A Family Deal With $126 million State Cash

How Akufo-Addo Cooked A Family Deal With $126 million State Cash

Just like the devil who comes “…only to steal and destroy”, it is now obvious to many discerning Ghanaians that President Akufo-Addo came to be President of Ghana only to enrich himself, his family members and his close friends. As a result, his cabal made up mostly of his family members have cooked up many schemes to enrich themselves with state money.
Among the several schemes are the infamous PDS scandal in which he and his cronies tried to sell the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to themselves using others as front. But before PDS, the President cooked up a deal that saw him forking out a whopping $126 million from the state’s coffers and giving it to one Dr. Kwame Nyantakyi-Owusu, an in-law (his wife’s younger sister’s husband)
This is how he cooked the deal;

i. Former President John Mahama set up the Ghana Infrastructure Investment Fund ( GIIF) in 2014 to mobilize, manage, coordinate and provide financial resources for infrastructure projects in the country

ii. At the time Mahama exited office, the GIIF had $270 million in its coffers

iii. After Akufo-Addo became President in 2017, he took $126 million out of the $270 million and gives it to Dr.Kwame Nyantakyi Owusu who is the Founder and CEO of Inter-Afrique Holding (IAH) to put up a hotel in Accra

iv. To give this rape of the state’s coffers some semblance of credibility, the claim is that the hotel to be built will be owned jointly by IAH and GIIF

v. A company called Platinum Properties Limited (PPL) was formed to be the special purpose vehicle for the hotel project

vi. With the $126 million under his arm-pit, Akufo-Addo got his in-law, Kwame Nyantaky Owusu, to use the PPL to apply to the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) for Strategic Investment status on the 4th of March 2018 to enable him enjoy tax waivers

vii. Akufo-Addo then gets the GIPC which is headed by one of his boys, Yoofi Grant, to refer Kwame Nyantakyi’s request to him at the Presidency

viii. In a letter dated 13th November, 2019 and signed by his Executive Secretary, Nana Asante Bediatuo, who is also his cousin, President Akufo-Addo grants tax waivers to the tune of a whopping $23million to his in-law. PPL which is overseeing the building of the hotel is therefore going to be exempted from (a)VAT on imported materials for the construction phase of the project (b)duties on imported materials for the construction phase of the project and (c)VAT on local purchases of building and construction materials specific to the project

ix. The letter is copied to the Finance Minister

x. In the letter, the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Atta, who is also a cousin of the President is instructed to obtain Parliamentary approval to seal the deal

xi. The tax waiver matter is currently before parliament

xii. If parliament approves it which it certainly will because the NPP is the majority in parliament, then it means President Akufo-Addo has not only depleted the state coffers of $126 million which he has given to his in-law but has also denied Ghana the opportunity to earn approximately$23 million as revenue.

CONVERSION
Do you know that at an exchange rate of $1: GHȼ5.7, the $ 126,095,000 which he has taken out of the GIIF coffers is equivalent to GHȼ718,741.50 (seven hundred and eighteen million, seven hundred and forty-one thousand Ghana cedis, fifty pesewas)?
Do you also know that at the exchange rate above, the $23,983,003.43 about to be given as tax waivers is equivalent to GHȼ136,703,119.55 (one hundred and thirty six million, seven hundred and three thousand, one hundred and nineteen cedis, fifty five pesewas?

OLD GHANA CEDIS
Are you aware that the GHȼ438,900,000 (four hundred and thirty eight million, nine hundred Ghana cedis) above, in old Ghana cedis, is ȼ4,389,000,000,000 (four trillion, three hundred and eighty-nine billion cedis)?
Are you also aware that the GHȼ136,703,119.55 which should have come to the state but which Akufo Addo has decided his in-law must not pay as tax is same as ȼ1,367,031,190,000 (one trillion cedis, three hundred and sixty-seven billion, thirty one million, one hundred and ninety thousand Ghana cedis?
This is how badly President Akufo Addo is looting the state’s coffers for a member of his family.

More anon

SOURCE: DAILY POST