BRIBERY SCANDAL •Rawlings Goes Mad

Former President Jerry John Rawlings and his household are reeling under the weight of media publications linking him to a bribery allegation.

Mr. Rawlings and his wife, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, have been accused of receiving bribes from a Norwegian cement giant, SCANCEM, for various reasons including the maintenance of a foothold on the cement market in Ghana.

However, the former First Couple have rejected the allegation, claiming that they have not received any bribe money.
Nana Konadu said the allegation came to her as a surprise and that she would not sit down for somebody to mess up her family name.

“They cannot put our integrity on a khebab stick,” she said.
The Rawlingses, through their lawyer, Tony Lithur of LitherBrew and Co., swiftly issued rejoinders, dissociating the former first family from the unfolding bribery scandal.

However, the raging inferno may be too difficult to douse now, as tons of more allegations rear their ugly heads, threatening to sweep along the former first family.

Scancem, through its former Senior Director for Africa, Tor Egil Kjelsaas, according to a Norwegian court proceeding, allegedly paid various sums of money to the former First Couple and Mr. Paul Victor Obeng, former (P)NDC Presidential Advisor, to maintain Scancem's monopoly in Ghana.

Even though Mr. P.V. Obeng, who was variously described as Prime Minister during the PNDC era or power behind the throne, had conceded that indeed he received money from the Norwegian company, former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings has categorically denied the allegations.

Mr. Obeng claimed that the money paid to him by the cement company was only for consultancy services he rendered to them.
Scancem was the majority shareholder in Ghana Cement Company (Ghacem), with the Ghana Government as a junior partner.

However, Mrs. Rawlings, who took the airwaves by storm, yesterday stated that the story, even though it had jolted her household, was not new.

According to the former first lady and life president of the revolutionary red-bereted 31st December Women's Movement (DWM), the story broke in Norway about three months ago.

She explained that some Ghanaian residents in Norway drew their attention to the story after a news magazine in the Scandinavian country, “Dagens Naeringsliv” had published it in its April 21-22, 2007 edition.

A translated version of the story was subsequently sent to them, she explained.

However, three months after the publication, Mrs. Rawlings indicated that they were yet to furnish the news magazine with their side of the story, pointing out that they were considering dragging the publishers to court.

Speaking to Citi FM, an Accra-based radio station, Mrs. Rawlings described the allegation as very serious, pointing out that their lawyers were studying the draft statement in order to make their case water-tight.

“I have never been paid any money by SCANCEM”, she charged, urging Transparency International (TI) to delve into the matter.

Appearing before a Norwegian court for stealing, Mr. Kjelsaas said he paid $1,690,000 and $2,460,000 into Barclays Bank coded accounts in Geneva, Switzerland and Unibank S.A., Luxembourg respectively between 1993 and 1998.

A former Scancem Finance Director, G. Jacoben confirmed the payments of money to officials of Ghana and other African countries where the company had plants.

But Konadu said she never operated any secret account and that if she had money stashed in any account somewhere, she would be happy to receive it now.

She claimed she had never seen the personality making the allegation, pointing out that she had instructed her lawyers to act promptly.

In an uncharacteristic fashion, Konadu's lawyer, Tony Lithur swiftly drafted rejoinders and addressed them to The Statesman and Crusading Guide- two local newspapers that had published the bribery allegation against the former first couple.

Strangely, Daily Graphic, which also published the story on Monday, did not have any of the rejoinders addressed to it.

Mr. Rawlings described the state-owned newspaper as the “mouthpiece of Mr. Kufuor and the NPP.”

In the rejoinder to the Crusading Guide which Kwaku Baako Jnr, its editor-in-chief has described as an act of desperation, Tony Lithur said his clients had never received any bribe money.

“In direct response to any insinuations of guilt that may be contained in your story, in any conclusion of guilt that may be drawn by readers of your newspaper, our clients have instructed us to respond as follows:

“They have not, and neither of them has received any monies from Scancem. Nor have they ever requested or been offered any money by Scancem.

Any suggestion by anybody that either or both of them have received any monies either directly or indirectly from Scancem is therefore untrue and is merely an attempt to tarnish their image and reputation.”