Last Updated- Oct 7, 2009 7:53 - - 0 Comments


Former Ghana Ambassador to Japan cited in $125,000 scandal

Dr. Adjei-Barwuah

Dr. Adjei-Barwuah

Former Ghana’s Ambassador to Japan in the Kufuor administration, Dr Barfuor Adjei-Barwuah, has been cited in a $125,000 scandal by the Ghana Audit Service after auditing the accounts of the Ghana Embassy in Tokyo, Japan.

Dr Adjei-Barwuah was alleged to have diverted the money meant for two public universities in Ghana into the account of his private foundation, the Lotte-Bonsafo Scholarship Foundation.

The money was a contribution by a Japanese chocolate manufacturing company, Lotte Company, towards supporting education in Ghana.

The donation was in fulfillment of a promise made by the company during a visit to Japan by former President J. A. Kufuor in October 2002.

These were contained in a report issued after an audit conducted by the Ghana Audit Service for the period of April 1, 2007 to June 30, 2009, a copy of which is available to the Daily Graphic.

The report said in a letter dated January 7, 2004 and issued by Dr Adjei-Barwuah to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the ambassador indicated that Lotte had agreed to provide $25,000 a year to support university students who intended to pursue careers related to the cocoa industry.

It said as a result of a supposedly long delay by the Ghanaian authorities in reacting to the scholarship offer by Lotte Company, the ambassador, in July 2004 and without prior consultations with the government of Ghana, unilaterally changed the objective of the scholarship scheme, with the justification that he wanted to put emphasis on promoting primary and secondary education in Ghana.

“Thereafter, the ambassador claimed, he made a proposal to Lotte for the scheme to be renamed Lotte-Bonsafo Scholarship Scheme, with addresses in Kumasi and Accra,” the report revealed.

The report said on the instruction of the ambassador, the first instalment of $25,000 which was deposited in the mission’s Yen account on July 17, 2003 was transferred from the Free Yen Account into the mission’s Property Fund Account No 941267210 on December 2003.

“Then, on September 3, 2004 the amount was once again moved from the Property Fund Account to the Bonsafo Barwuah Foundation Account with CAL Merchant Bank Ltd, Accra main branch,” it said.

The audit report drew attention to the fact that the action of the former ambassador to lodge public funds into the private account of Bonsafo Barwuah Foundation contravened Section 15 (1) of the Financial Administration Regulations 2004.

The report said that section stipulates, “Any public officer or revenue collector who receives or collects public and trust monies shall issue official receipts for them and pay them into the relevant public fund bank account within 24 hours.”

The report recommended that the former ambassador be made to transfer the whole of the $25,000 Lotte Company’s contribution into Ghana government account.

The report said the former ambassador requested the audit team to identify for him a Ghana government account number and name into which the transfer of the amount could be made and he was duly furnished with the required information.

“The ambassador, however, refused to transfer the money, insisting that he needed a special guarantee that the money would be spent on schools in his home town,” the report said.

According to the report, despite interventions by the then ministers of Foreign Affairs and Education urging the former ambassador to transfer the public funds he illegally lodged into his private charity foundation account into the public account, he refused and retained the contribution in the account and ensured that subsequent yearly releases by the company were diverted into his foundation’s account, with number 0210103117 in Accra.

“In the process, total release of $125,000 in tranches of $25,000 a year was transferred by the company into the accounts of the private foundation between July 2003 and March 2008,” the report said.

Source: Daily Graphic

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