The Director General (DG) of the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority (GPHA), Mr Ben Owusu Mensah, was paid allegedly kickback in 2001 on the supply of MAFI-Rho-Rho tractors supplied by Kf94 Limited to the GPHA, says Mr Fred Kofi Lagbo, a former Director of the private limited liability company which executed the job. The amount, according to Mr Lagbo, was paid through a third party and a friend of Mr Owusu Mensah. According to Mr Lagbo, a friend of the GPHA DG’s bank account was used as a conduit to transfer the money. Details of these revelations are captured in a response filed with the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) by Mr Lagbo through his representative and Managing Editor of the GYE NYAME CONCORD newspaper, Mr Alfred Ogbamey, and their solicitor, Mr Egbert Faibille Jnr, in the ongoing preliminary investigation by CHRAJ into allegations of corruption, conflict of interest and insider dealing in the award and execution of a $16.8 million contract awarded by the GPHA to the Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Company Limited (ZPMC) of China and its Ghanaian agent, Kf94 Limited. Mr Lagbo’s response was filed in reaction to a response by Mr Ben Owusu Mensah, the GPHA DG, in which the GPHA executive stated that he has had no prior knowledge or business dealing with Mr. Kweku Eshun, the other Director of Kf94 Limited who is alleged by Lagbo to have been dealing with the GPHA DG over the $2 million kickback scheme, or the Kf94 Company Limited. Mr Lagbo, who has told the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice that he was a participant in the perpetration of the $2 million kickback scheme that resulted in a $14.7 million contract being upped to $16.8 million, has petitioned the Commission to investigate the allegations, insisting that the acquisition of the Shore Gantry Cranes (STS) and four rubber-tyred gantry cranes (RTGS) was fraught with corruption and insider dealing on the part of Mr. Ben Owusu-Mensah and Kf94. Mr Lagbo has also told the Commission to view his petition as a “confession from an active participant, an insider, with some knowledge of these acts”, stating that he was not confessing these acts because he is the most patriotic Ghanaian but because his confessions “may have been somewhat influenced by the denial of the $100,000 promised him as part of the booty from this corruption perpetrated on the Ghanaian taxpayer.” Delving into details of the 2001 kickback scheme, which he revealed for the first time in his response to the Commission last month, Mr Lagbo said “in that instance, Kf94 paid the kickback by transferring money from an account at the Barclays Bank, Tema Main Branch in Community One, to a friend of Ben Owusu Mensah's account at the Barclays Bank...” He said the account holder and friend of Ben Owusu Mensah in whose account the payments were effected was “one Robertson Aryee of the Atlantic Port Service (APS), a stevedoring company.” The petitioner said he vividly recollects on the day they went to effect the transfer through Aryee’s account to Owusu Mensah that, it was handled by two staff at the Barclays Bank, Tema Main Branch in Community One, and pleaded with CHRAJ to look at this issue, saying he is willing to assist in leading evidence on that case as well. Though Mr Lagbo did not name the bankers who handled the transfers in his response, he provided proof of his allegations by tendering to the Commission an audio CD containing his conversation with Mr Robertson Aryee, on which the APS staff admitted to the transfer of the kickback through his account. He also tendered to the Commission excerpts of transcript of an audio CD with a promise to tender more tapes as the Commission’s investigations go forward. Part of the response of by lawyer Egbert Faibille on behalf of Mr Lagbo, who is presently out of Ghana due to what he has told the Commission was the result of police harassment instigated by Mr Owusu Mensah, noted the following: “On the denial by the GPHA DG of any prior knowledge or prior business dealing with Mr. Kweku Eshun or Kf94 Limited, Mr. Lagbo says the least said about it being false, the better. Mr. Lagbo insists that as a childhood friend of Eshun and a Director of Kf94, he has always known of the friendship between Mr. Owusu Mensah and Mr. Kweku Eshun. Mr. Lagbo further insists that in his capacity as a Director of Kf94, he has also had the opportunity of being part of the payment of kickback funds to Mr. Owusu Mensah in a previous deal. He says it is in this same capacity (Director of Kf94) that he and Kweku Eshun had prior to the execution of the ZPMC cranes transaction paid kickbacks from another contract involving MAFI rho-rho tractors Kf94 Ltd supplied to GPHA, to Mr. Owusu Mensah....” A copy of the audio recording was tendered to the CHRAJ marked as Exhibit A1 and excerpts of the audio transcript marked as Exhibit T1 (reproduced below) were also tendered by Mr Lagbo to prove his assertion. “FRED KOFI LAGBO CHATS ON PHONE WITH ROBERTSON ARYEE OF ATLANTIC PORT SERVICES. Below is the verbatim transcription of the recorded conversation between Mr. Fred Kofi Lagbo and Robertson Aryee of the Atlantic Ports Services (APS), a stevedoring company in which Mr Aryee confirms the information in the text message above sent by Mr Lagbo to Mr Ben Owusu Mensah, also known as Flash, in May 2006. It is also proof that indeed Mr Lagbo’s allegation of having been privy to kickback paid to Mr Owusu Mensah as far back as 2001 through the account of Robertson Aryee is not just a mere allegation. It also shows some of the corruption schemes which have occurred at the GPHA. Fred Kofi Lagbo (FKL): Hello, my big brother. Robertson Aryee (RA): Yeah, hello FKL: Hello good evening. RA: Good evening sir, good evening sir. RA: Is that Fred? FKL: Yeah hi RA: How is it? FKL: Oh very fine RA: Yeah FKL: You're at home now eh? RA: I'm now getting home. I went to play squash and I'm now on my way home. FK: Yeah, I see, so you're now driving? RA: Yeah, yeah, yeah I'm driving but we can talk FKL: Okay, are you alone? RA: I'm alone, yes FKL: Alright! It's nothing really. Since we met we haven't had time after sometime, I've been around, there are a few things I'll like to address with you RA: Ok FKL: I know Flash is your very good friend so there is a need to tell you a few things. RA: Okay FKL: After the MAFI rho-rho tractors that we delivered to GPHA we had to transfer some money into your account for him. RA: Yes FKL: There were a few things that Kweku and I had to look at in order to do those things. RA: Yes FKL: And I'm sure by virtue of that it gave me the impression he is your very good friend and that's why I want to tell you these things. RA: OK....” Source: Gye Nyame Concord