When the Special Prosecutor, Mr Martin Amidu recently completed his discretionary Risk of Corruption and Anti-Corruption Assessment in relation to the Gold Royalties Monetization Transaction, under the Minerals Income Investment Act 2018 (Act 978), otherwise known as the Agyapa deal, he sent a copy of his report to the Minister of Finance aside what was sent to the Office of the President.
When President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo received the report, he asked the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta to provide his comments.
Mr Ofori Atta did provide his comments in a confidential memorandum to the President.
President Akufo-Addo has since commended Mr Amidu for his work and authorised that the report and the Minister of Finance’s comments should to be made public to help contribute to the national discourse on the matter.
In a statement signed and issued Monday night, [November 2, 2020] by the Director of Communications at the Presidency, Mr Eugene Arhin, the Presidency explained that in line with the observations of the Special Prosecutor, President Akufo-Addo has directed that the procurement of the services of the Transaction Advisor(s) should also be reviewed by the Ministry of Finance and the Attorney General, with the aim of taking all steps that may be necessary to remove any doubts about the integrity of the process.
Additionally, it is the expectation of the President that the Ministry of Finance and the Minerals Income Investment Fund and the Transaction Advisors will use this opportunity also to amend the relevant Agreements to take into account the useful feedback received during the series of stakeholder consultations over the last two months, it added.
“Based on the observations, the President has, accordingly, instructed the Minister that, in the interest of transparency and accountability to the Ghanaian people, the Agreements supporting the transaction that were submitted to Parliament, and approved by the House, should be resubmitted to Parliament for the approval process to start all over again.
This, he believes, will help address the concerns raised, principally, by the Minority, about having been given very limited time to subject properly the various Agreements to proper scrutiny. The transaction documents to be resubmitted are the Relationship Agreement, the Assignment Agreement, the Allocation Agreement, and the Investment Agreement.
Furthermore, issues surrounding the value of the proposed Agyapa listing should be properly addressed in order to engender greater public confidence, it said.
We reproduce in the attachment below a full copy of Mr Ken Ofori-Atta’s comment to the OSP’s report which he sent to President Akufo-Addo
Below is a copy of the full report
