Private legal practitioner Martin Kpebu has said that the Operation Recover All Loot (ORAL) will scale up this year as part of the fight against corruption.
He makes the point that the Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine, will be filing more cases under ORAL in court this year.
“ORAL is going to do far better; there are going to be more cases sent to court. This year you will see more cases heading to court,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, January 3.
Earlier, the Attorney-General, Dr Dominic Ayine, said that the investigations by the ORAL team were going well.
He served notice to other state institutions that are called upon to provide information on alleged corruption to endeavour to do so. Otherwise, he said, the state will go after the heads of those institutions.
“The ORAL investigation is going on well. 2026 is going to be a different year. If I make demands on you [state institutions] and you delay, I will take the view that you are complicit. So all state institutions that have information that is needed to file criminal prosecutions should not delay in submitting the information,” he said during the Government Accountability Series today, Monday, December 22.
Dr Dominic Ayine briefed the public, relating to two different alleged corruption cases involving NPP Ashanti Region Chair Bernard Antwi Boasiako (Chairman Wontumi) and Percival Kofi Akpaloo.
The Attorney-General says in order to execute the project, Wontumi Farms Limited submitted a proforma invoice to Exim Bank for the purchase of farm equipment, including tractors, combined harvesters, corn seeder machines and wellington boots.
The invoice was submitted on December 15, 2017, as part of the loan application process.
Subsequently, Exim Bank demanded proof that the equipment has been purchased. On March 18, 2018, Chairman Wontumi submitted a receipt from Kas-Sama Enterprise for the purchase of the equipment in the sum of Ghs4 Million.
However, and this is where it gets interesting, the equipment purchased as shown on the said receipt included a bulldozer and an excavator.
“Our investigations established that Chairman Wontumi had approached Kas-Sama Enterprise, an industrial equipment dealer and obtained an invoice with a promise to return to purchase the said equipment. He never went back to purchase the equipment. Instead he forged the invoice he obtained from Kas-Sama Enterprise by removing the word “invoice” and replacing it with “receipt”. This forged receipt was then submitted to Exim Bank by as proof that he had purchased the said equipment after the disbursement.
“The owner of Kas-Sama Enterprise confirmed to investigators that the only document he issued to Wontumi Farms through Chairman Wontumi was an invoice and not a receipt,” he said.
He stated that after he issued the invoice, he never heard from Chairman Wontumi again despite repeated follow-up calls.
“The forged receipt submitted to Exim Bank suggested that Kas-Sama Enterprise acknowledged receipt of Four Million Ghana Cedis for the purchase of earth moving machines and farming equipment. The so-called receipt had on it “50 days to supply and 1 year guarantee and service”, meaning that it was a proform invoice and not a receipt of payment,” the AG said.
