‘Finance Minister did no wrong’ in approving loan for McDan Shipping

The government has refuted the accusation by the Minority in Parliament that the Minister of Finance, Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, has granted approval to the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) to disburse a credit facility of GH¢10.45 million to MacDan Shipping Company Limited in breach of laid down regulations.

Speaking at a press conference in Accra last Tuesday, the Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, had said: "The minister has, by this action, usurped the authority and functions of the bank’s Board of Directors, which has curiously not been constituted despite several reminders and complaints."

But a Deputy Minister of Information, Mr Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, told the Daily Graphic on Wednesday that due to the absence of a board of directors for the ADB, the bank sought the permission of the Minister of Finance and other significant shareholders of the bank to grant the loan to MacDan Shipping Company.

He showed a copy of a letter dated June 6, 2017 in which ADB had indicated that its credit committee had recommended the approval of a credit facility of GH¢10.45 million to MacDan Shipping for its business operations and in particular to execute a supply contract awarded it by the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD).

Part of the letter read: "In the absence of a board of directors, we write to seek the approval of the significant shareholders of the bank to enable it to disburse the facility to the customer."

Mr Nkrumah said in a letter dated June 9, 2017, Mr Ofori-Atta had made reference to the request letter before granting the approval for the disbursement of the credit facility to the company.

He said Mr Ofori-Atta had, in the letter, asked the ADB to do due diligence before extending the facility to MacDan Shipping.

Paragraph three of the letter read: "You are hereby directed to ensure that the necessary due diligence is done before the disbursement of the loan, as well as ratification of the approval of the loan, once the board is put in place."

The deputy minister said the board of the ADB had now been constituted and indicated that the agreement for the GH¢10.45 million to MacDan Shipping was before the board for ratification.

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Procurement 'breaches'

The credit facility is to enable the company to undertake its business operations and in particular execute a supply contract awarded to it by COCOBOD.

At the Minority press conference, Mr Iddrisu said the contract that the COCOBOD awarded to MacDan Shipping seemed to have violated the Procurement Law.

He said if the contract had been awarded using the sole sourcing procurement process, the law required approval to be sought from the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

However, he said, as of now the PPA had no board and wondered who granted approval for the use of the sole sourcing process to COCOBOD.

But Mr Nkrumah denied that there was any breach of the procurement law in the award of the contract to MacDan Shipping.

He said COCOBOD had a pool of companies whose transactions with it did not require the approval of the Central Tender Review Board (CTRB) and indicated that MacDan Shipping was one of such companies.

Therefore, he said, COCOBOD gave the contract to MacDan Shipping using the same rotation regime.

Conflict of interest question

Another accusation by the Minority was that the selection of the beneficiary company in the award of the contract raised serious conflict of interest issues that must be addressed, since it was the same MacDan Shipping that was alleged to have facilitated the smuggling into Ghana of some South African mercenaries by the then opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) to train the party’smembers.

However, Mr Nkrumah said the claim had no basis, since perceived political affiliation was not enough to bar any company from engaging in business.