Quality Grain caused no financial loss

NDC Finance Minister Kwame Peprah, Minister of Agriculture Ibrahim Adam and Investment Policy Adviser Dr. George Adja-Sipa Yankey, may have gone to prison for nothing, says the Ghana Palaver.

According to the newspaper, per a valuation report issued by the officially appointed valuer of the NPP Government, the Quality Grain Project for which they were prosecuted and incarcerated was not a loss making venture, but “even in its uncom¬pleted state and with the 6 years of neglect and consequent deprecia¬tion of the assets, the Project has still made a monumental profit for the Government of Ghana.”

The Palaver said what is also incredible, is that the valuation excludes the cost of the milling plant, silos, conveyor system and related machinery, considered to be the most expensive part of the Project!

The valuers, Messrs Alpha Property Services, submitted their valu¬ation report on the total assets of the Quality Grain Project at Aveyime to the Chief Director of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in a letter dated November I, 2006 and signed by the Principal Valuer/Project Consortium Leader Yvonne Sowah (Ms) B. Sc. (Hons), FGhIS, SCV, RPM.

This was in response to a request made by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture per its letter referenced No. MOFA/ETC/4: "Consult¬ants' services for the Valuation of the Land of the Aveyime Rice Project in the Volta Region of Ghana for the Ministry of Food and Agricul¬ture".

The consultants valued the current Open Market Value of the Quality Grain assets at 139,618,093,033 (One Hundred and Thirty-Nine Bil¬lion, Six Hundred and Eigh¬teen Million, Ninety three Thousand, Three Hundred and Three cedis). Using the current dollar exchange rate of 9,400 cedis to the dollar, this amounts to US$14,852,988.00.

On the other hand, the Forced Sale Value is 123,992,332,000 (One Hundred and Twenty Three Billion, Nine Hundred and Ninety-Two Million, Three Hundred and Thirty Two Thousand Cedis).

This converts at today's dollar exchange rate to us$13,190,674.00.

The paper said according to the late Jus¬tice Dixon Kwame Afreh in his infamous judgement in the Quality Grain Case, the finan¬cial loss caused to the State by the three convicted persons amounted to US$12 million, being the difference between the US Exim Bank loan of US$22 on whose Guarantee the Ghana Government was obliged to pay, and US$10 million being the value of as¬sets that Mrs. Cotton brought into the country for the Project.

The Palaver said the valuation by the NPP's own valuers proves one of the major defences put up by the accused persons in the Qual¬ity Grain Trial - that upon a proper analysis of the Project, there was no financial loss caused to the state.

Indeed, at the open market value, the state makes a profit of 26, 818,093,003 cedis and if forced to sell (which means the lowest possible price that the state should get for the assets), the state still makes a profit of 11,192,332,000.00 cedis.