BNI chases NPP Ministers

*Over State vehicles

Government has ordered operatives of the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) to be on stand-by to retrieve vehicles in the possession of former Ministers of the NPP administration, some of whom boasted on a section of the airwaves yesterday that they will not release the vehicles because they legally acquired them.

A deputy Minister of Information, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, confirmed Today's findings when in a reaction to this hinted in an interview with a section of the media that in the event that the former Ministers failed to surrender the cars, government will order the security operatives to go after them to take away the cars.

Before then, the deputy Minister had disclosed at a press briefing that but for the exercise mounted by the security agencies to retrieve state vehicles, a number of New Patriotic Party (NPP) officials who took possession of state vehicles would not have returned the them, adding that government will still rely on the state security to retrieve any car that is wrongfully in the possession of former appointees.

He intimated that while government apologized to some of the personalities whose cars were unduly seized from them, those isolated cases would have been avoided, if officials of the former NPP administration had left the cars and other state properties intact.

The government position is necessitated by the apparent intransigence of some former Ministers not to comply with the government directive. A number of them, who spoke to TODAY, said they would not release the cars because they legally acquired them and made the requisite payment at the Bank of Ghana.

Hon. Esther Obeng Dapaah, a former Minister of Environment and Science, told a section of the media yesterday that she will only oblige to the government directive if the GH¢1, 200 that she used to buy the vehicle was refunded by the current administration.

The value presented by Madam Dapaah, however, contradicts the records presented by the deputy Minister of Information.

Others like former deputy Minister of Communications, Dr. Aggrey Ntim, and a former aide to former Vice President, Alhaji Aliu Mahama all maintained similar postures to the government order.

According to Okudzeto-Ablakwa, a 2008 Peugeot 607 saloon car in the possession of Madam Cecilia Dapaah was valued for her at ¢6,500. Dr. Aggrey-Ntim had his valued at ¢13,200 and Mr. Maxwell Kofi Jumah had his 2007 Puegeot saloon car valued for him at GH¢5,450, revealing that most of those vehicles had not legally been transferred to the former Ministers. The real value of the cars, TODAY discovered, range from GH¢30, 000 to GH¢49,000.

In February 23, 2005, then Chief of Staff Kwadwo Mpiani, in a circular, noted that vehicles being requested to be bought by prospective users should not be less than two years old. That directive, according to the deputy Information Minister, was not only flouted by the affected Ministers, but also undervalued.

He also disclosed that aside the “ridiculous values placed on the vehicles,” government granted a 30 percent rebate to the prospective buyers. The NDC government gave today as the deadline for the former appointees to return the cars.

Other appointees who paid less than the value of the vehicles are also expected to top up their payments before taken legal possession of the vehicles.

Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa further hinted that in the case of those officials whose vehicles were more than two years old but were undervalued, the new values calculated by the official government valuer, who was sidelined by the prospective buyers during the valuation period, is what is going to apply in all cases.

Mr. Okudzeto-Ablakwa however disclosed that government had consulted the former Ministers, through their parent body-the Association of Former Ministers, where through mutual understanding, former Ministers like Hon. Albert Kan-Dapaah, Osei Asibey Antwi and Kwadwo Affram Asiedu have returned their vehicles.

He reminded the former appointees that Ghana will stop at nothing at enquiring into activities of the former Ministers, despite the deliberate attempts by some of them to scream through the media to win public sympathy.