The jailed Member of Parliament (MP) of Keta and former Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Daniel Kwasi Abodakpi, is likely to face another trial following reports of similar illegal transfer of funds to a Malaysian company in the divestiture process of the Ghana Film Industry. Mr Abodakpi was jailed 10 year last two weeks for causing financial loss to the state in the tune of $400,000 meant for a feasibility study on the Science and Technology Valley Park Project, which was not conducted in the year 2000. Following the ruling, his colleague MPs boycotted parliament for two weeks, saying it was politically motivated. However, the former Minister is cited in another case of illegal transfer of $400,000, four good years before the one that sent him to jail. According to the Daily Guide, a daily newspaper based in Accra, in 1996, Abodakpi was instrumental in illegally transferring the money to Messrs Goldshields Contact Services Limited, a company that was then handling the Divestiture of Ghana Film Industry Corporation, and had by so doing, caused another financial loss to the state. The security agencies had been asked to take up the matter to determine if there was any intention of fraud on his part. The paper said a 2002 Ministry of Finance audit report conducted by Osei Kwabena and Associates, the Keta MP, on November 28, 1996, wrote a letter to the then Executive Secretary of the Divestiture Implementation Committee (DIC) Mr Emmanuel A. Agbodo, directing him to ‘contribute’ over $500,000 to Goldshield to establish an office in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, toward coordinating trade investment for Ghana in that region. The letter, which had the reference number MIN/TRD/DM/VOL.4, and addressed to Mr Agbodo stated among others: “It is requested that the DIC should contribute toward the operational cost of Goldshield Services in the region for the last three years, which we are advised, runs into over half a million dollars and also assist in the setting up of a permanent office in Kuala Lumpur.” Mr Agbodo was questioned by officials of the audit company on why he decided to transfer $400,000 when Abodakpi had actually asked for over half a million but he told them that the letter requesting for assistance to the company came from a superior officer, and that some other telephone conversations had gone on before the transfer. The report, however, did not give details of the said telephone conversations. The DIC boss subsequently directed the payment of the amount which was countersigned by R. Nana Akuffo into account number 86824900 at Bishopgate, London branch of Barclays Bank Plc with the reason that the transfer was for ‘promotion of trade and investment activities in South-East Asian nations’. “On the basis of the letter, the Executive Secretary caused to be transferred on 2nd December 1996 an amount of US $400,000 to the overseas Account of Messrs Goldshield Contact Services Limited,” the audit report said, stressing that the DIC did not approve of the transaction at the time of the transfer. The report said it was irrational to have spent the country’s scarce resources to assist a foreign company that was then setting up to work for itself, and cited several irregularities in the deal. It stated categorically that soon after the transfer, DIC did not hear from Goldshield again, concluding that “the amount of $400,000 actually went to waste”. A bill $69,000 was paid on behalf of Goldshield for which the auditors’ report questioned: “If the company had been operating an office in the region for three years, why should it charge the DIC for hotel bills for carrying out the assignment?” Dan Abodakpi was two weeks ago jailed 10 years for illegally transferring a similar amount ($400,000) through ECOBANK into the account of Dr Frederick Owusu-Boadu. For their part, NDC activists in Keta and Anlo constituencies in the Southern part of the Volta region converged on a park, and with the assistance of several renowned fetish priests in the area, heaped curses on the President, government and the ruling New Patriotic (NPP) members, praying for the affliction of hernia and measles. Source: Daily Guide