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Press Release
REACTION TO NANA AKOMEA’S STATEMENT
ON THE REPORT OF THE AD HOC COMMITTEE OF THE NPP NATIONAL
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
December 21, 2015
My attention has been drawn to a statement issued by Nana
Akomea, Director of communications of the New Patriotic
Party, which statement comments on the Report by the Ad Hoc
committee instituted by the Party’s National Executive
Committee to look into the Financial Administration of the
Party, Issues related to fees received for the 2015
Parliamentary Primaries and other Financial Matters.
Ordinarily, since the statement by Nana Akomea is to all
intents and purposes an official statement of the party, I
should not respond to it. However, in view of the fact that
the said statement by Mr. Nana Akomea sought to cast a slur
on my person and on my integrity as a professional and also
Chairman of the said Committee, I am compelled to state the
facts of the matter.
1.In the first place, the committee did not investigate the
establishment of a secret account as Nana Akomea’s statement
seeks to portray. Since we did not investigate a secret
account, we could not have exonerated anybody for setting up
a secret account. The issue was about the unauthorized
reactivation of an existing BUT DORMANT Account.
That was what was investigated, and the investigation did
establish that the National Treasurer Mr. Abankwa Yeboah,
and the 1st Vice National Chairman Mr. Freddie Blay
illegally reactivated and operated this dormant account
without authority from the Steering Committee, Finance
Committee, nor indeed the National Executive Committee.
2. I have to state further that the Committee did not
investigate any allegation of a disbursement of any One
Hundred Thousand Pounds Sterling (£100,000) from a party
account to the 2016 flagbearer, Nana Akufo-Addo. The
committee therefore could not have issued a clean report on
a matter it did not investigate.
3. The impression being created by Mr. Akomea’s statement
that all disbursements from the Ecobank account were solely
for the Talensi by-election is false.
The committee did not audit the disbursements from the
Ecobank Account as both the National Treasurer and the
National Organizer failed to provide the committee with any
receipts on their expenditures on the Talensi By-Elections.
4. The impression being created by Akomea’s statement that
the recommendations contained in my minority report fall
outside the committee’s Terms of Reference is false.
5.The impression being created that the recommendations
contained in my minority report are not supported by the
evidence adduced before the committee, and that I possibly
cooked up those recommendations out of a vacuum is also
palpably false.
First of all, the committee’s Terms of Reference consisted
of Nine items not Four, as Mr. Akomea’s statement claims.
The Nine-Point TOR are as follows:
1. To establish the total amount collected as fees for the
2015 parliamentary primaries;
2. To establish the bank account(s) into which the fees were
lodged;
3. To determine the disbursements out of those accounts and
the purpose for those disbursements;
4. To establish the approvals of those disbursements;
5. To investigate the cause(s) of the impasse between the
National Treasurer and the National Chairman/General
Secretary;
6. To ascertain how the dormant Bank Account at the Trust
Towers Branch, was reactivated, and how it was operated;
7. To investigate the circumstances under which the National
Treasurer entered into a contract with Textgenesys Limited
for the collection of Membership Dues and Monies that have
accrued from the process;
8. To investigate any other matters which , in the opinion
of the Committee, are relevant to its work;
9. To submit Recommendations to forestall any such
occurrences in the future.
DISBURSEMENT FROM ECOBANK ACCOUNT
The committee did indeed establish that some of the
disbursement from the Ecobank Account went into the Talensi
by-elections. However, it was also established by the
committee that a chunk of the money from the Ecobank Account
were illegally used to purchase Treasury Bills as well as to
establish a call Account, all without proper authorization.
In his evidence to the committee the National Treasurer, Mr.
Abankwa Yeboah admitted that his decisions to reactivate the
Ecobank Account, purchase a Treasury Bill and establish a
call Account for the party were all unilateral and without
appropriate authorization. Obviously, it is based on this
and other evidence that came before the committee that the
minority report submitted by my good self recommended
disciplinary action and sanctions against the National
Treasurer.
The committee established that the 1st National Vice
National Chairman, Mr. Freddie Blay illegally authorized the
disbursements from the Ecobank account, and also wrongly
usurped the office of the National Chairman. It therefore
stands to reason that my recommendation that Mr. Freddie
Blay is sanctioned could not have been baseless as the
Akomea statement seeks to imply.
A close look at the committee’s Terms of Reference shows
clearly that Item 9 states and I quote:
“To submit Recommendations to forestall any such occurrences
in the future”
With reference to the above-stated item on the committee’s
TOR, I am at loss as to how any fair-minded person could
suggest that it was beyond the committee’s remit to
recommend anything, more so sanctions and disciplinary
action where appropriate.
It is based on the evidence that came before the committee
and on our findings that I proposed the following
recommendations which the other four members of my committee
raised objections to:
RECOMMENDATIONS
The work of the committee has revealed very deep seated
acrimony, animosity and a major factional divide within the
party. Unfortunately, this situation is being exploited by
some party members and leaders to the detriment of party
unity, cohesion and internal harmony. Matters have not been
helped by an apparent lack of effective enforcement of
discipline. In an effort to deal effectively with the
party’s current situation, the following Recommendations are
being proposed:
1. That Article 17 of the Party’s Constitution be
operationalized and the Finance Committee be mandated to
immediately draft Financial Regulations to supplement the
provisions of the constitution on the party’s financial
management.
NB: The Finance Committee representative who appeared before
the committee told the committee that his committee had
already drafted proposals for such Financial Rules and
Regulations for the party, ready to present same to the
National Executive Committee. We recommend that the
necessary action must be expedited on the said proposals for
implementation.
2. The National Council should arrange an introspection
meeting of all National Officers at which all fears and
suspicions would be laid bare and all grudges brought into
the open for a no-holds-barred discussion. It is recommended
that this meeting is facilitated by professional
psychologists and counselors before the end of the year.
3. The National Chairman should ensure that henceforth the
group decision making principle which underpins the party’s
constitution is adhered to.
4. That the National Treasurer is referred to the National
Discipline Committee for the appropriate sanctions for gross
misconduct, indiscipline and for arrogating to himself
powers that he is not constitutionally mandated to exercise,
particularly with respect to his unilateral decision to
reactivate a dormant account of the party and operate same,
as well as for unilaterally entering into a so-called
contract with Textgenesys and enforcing same against the
decision of the party’s Finance Committee.
5. That the 1st Vice Chairman is referred to the National
Disciplinary Committee for the appropriate sanctions for
gross misconduct in view of his usurpation of the powers and
functions of National Chairman even in situations that the
National Chairman is available in the jurisdiction and is
ready, willing and able to perform his functions as National
Chairman.
6. That the National Treasurer is ordered by the Finance
Committee to provide the it with documentary details of the
revenue that has accrued to the party from the Textgenesys
text fund raising activities to date.
7. That the National Treasurer who purchased a Treasury Bill
and established a Call Account on behalf of the party
without proper authorization, and the 1st Vice Chairman who
improperly authorized the above transactions, are ordered by
the National Executive Committee of the party to furnish it
with the original copy of the Treasury Bill Certificate, as
well as original documentary details of where the Call
Account is held and the current status thereof.
8. That in view of the rather serious allegations made by
Mr. Baah Achamfuor against the Immediate Past General
Secretary, Mr. Owusu Afriyie and the Immediate Past National
Treasurer, Mad. Esther Ofori of financial impropriety, the
National Executive Committee institutes investigations into
those allegations to establish the facts thereof.
9. That the former National Chairman, Mr. Peter McManu, is
ordered by the National Executive Committee of party to
explain in writing, the circumstances under which he opened
or caused to be opened a party account at the Trust Towers
Branch of the Ecobank and how it was run without the
knowledge of the then General Secretary, the then National
Treasurer nor indeed the Steering Committee.
I will just stop short of providing all the details of the
evidence that was adduced before the committee, as well as
all the findings. I believe that if we as a party do not
want to wash our dirty linen in public, we should learn NOT
to be the first to throw mud at the other person.
Signed
Nana Ohene-Ntow
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