Investigate SMC Account Number 48

A Witness at the National Reconciliation Commission (NRC) on Thursday petitioned it to investigate and establish how money deposited into Account Number 48 under the Supreme Military Council Decree (SMCD 226) was spent.

John Ayikwei Quarcoo, an Accountant, said 50 per cent of the 18,000 cedis he saved with the Ghana Commercial Bank at the Korle-Bu Branch in March 1979, was put into that account. He appealed to the NRC to ask the Bank of Ghana to submit that account for their scrutiny and for the public to know who authorised the payment of money into that account.

Quarcoo said he visited the bank to cash his money only for his bankers to inform him that the SMCD 226 came into effect on 9 March 1979 and that all customers, who saved money after that date were all affected.

He said he distributed textbooks to second cycle schools and the universities in 1979. Quarcoo said the 18,000 cedis was money accrued from the sale of his car to enable him to beef up his capital and to use the proceeds to establish a printing press.

He said after the bank seized the 9,000 cedis, he decided to use the remainder for estate development and he bought two plots of land at Dansoman on which he built a house. "To add insult to injury, the State Housing Corporation demolished the house because it said the plots of land belonged to it."

Quarcoo said several petitions he made to Ghana Commercial Bank, Ministry of Finance and State Housing Corporation to retrieve his money and compensation for his house failed. He said though State Housing Corporation demanded an estimate on the building from him he had since not had any response from them.

Quarcoo said the seizure of his money made him lose his business. This coupled with the demolishing of his house made him miserable. He said he could no longer pay the school fees of his children and life became so difficult for him until 1986 when one Awusi Mensah invited him to help with his business for which he was paid 40,000 cedis.

Quarcoo said with his five children, 40,000 cedis could not sustain them adding that he had since been helping a friend with his business where he was paid some money to feed himself and his family.

He said things had not been easy for him and that he walked from Mamprobi where he stayed to the Old Parliament House on Thursday to narrate his story to the Commission. He appealed to the Commission to ensure that justice was done.