How Francis Poku Financed His Lies

'The Ghana Palaver' has been doing some work on how the NPP intelligence capo has been financing the several fabricated intelligence plots with which he manages to convince President Kufuor and people like Hackman Owusu Agyeman and their other naïve colleagues, who then come out to make unconvincing pronouncements about coup plots and mercenary invasions.

These include the latest ridiculous fabrication about an advertisement in the Liberian 'Analyst' newspaper of a so-called recruitment of mercenaries in that country by the Ghanaian opposition.

These fabricated stories have had the effect of raising the political temperature in the country and creating a lot of tension.

It is a known fact in the intelligence community, world-wide, that the easiest way to extract money, large amounts of money, unaccounted for and unaudited, is to spin convincing but untrue intelligence stories of threats to the executive of the state, and the money flows into the intelligence war-chest, waa, waa, waa, like that.

So the question is who is financing the 'Peace Seekers International', the “terrorist wing” of the NPP?

The conspirators of the anti-Nkrumah bomb attacks of the 1960s and the anti-Rawlings coup-plotting dissident exiles of the 1990s who have made common cause within the security and intelligence apparatus of the NPP Government - who is funding them?

How did Francis Poku et al hope to fund Ms. Mariama Tula to leave Ghana and stay outside Ghana when they sent her on her abortive visa-seeking trip to the UK High Commission?

Where did the money, with which the Ghanaian intelligence officer at the Ghana Embassy in Monrovia planted the false story about the fake mercenary recruitment exercise in Liberia by the Ghanaian opposition come from?

The answer seems to lie in the ease with which Francis Poku and his agents are able to hoodwink Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Maafo into releasing large sums of money to them by simply telling tales of national security threats.

As evidence, we publish today two exhibits, unreferenced letters from the Minister of Finance to the Controller and Accountant-General releasing huge amounts of money for purposes that can at best be described as “nebulous” and that have been phrased in such a way that any attempts to audit them will be exercises in futility.

Exhibit 1

Exhibit 1 is unreferenced letter dated November 4, 2003, from the Minister of Finance to the Controller and Accountant, authorising him to release an amount of €150,000.00, or ¢1,537,306,500.00 being the cedi equivalent of the euro exchanged at the rate of €1=¢10,248.71.

The amount, which is in response to a request by the National Security Coordinator through his letter No. NSCS.127/1/VOL.4/292 dated October 31, 2003, was

“to enable the National Security Coordinator ,National Security Council, to carry out special Security Operations in the West and Central African countries to locate terrorists groups with the aim of neutralizing their potential to cause damage to the integrity of the State”.

When we showed this letter to a former intelligence operative, now analyst, he said:

“Bunkum. This is Francis Poku's way of getting money to chop or to do political damage to his opponents. He's got a bunch of political neophytes around him and he is running rings around them”.

Interestingly, the amount was not budgeted for because it was to be charged to the Contingency Vote under Specific Warrant No. SPW/NSC/CF/QTR4/WCA/03.

Question - How many terrorists or terrorist groups has Francis Poku and his gang been able to locate since they laid hands on this whopping amount of ¢1,537,306,500.00?

Exhibit 2

Exhibit 2 is a letter for the same amount of €150,000, but this time at the exchange rate of €1=¢8,785.73 and therefore yielding a total cedi equivalent of ¢1,317,859,500.00. This release was also per an unreferenced letter dated November 14, 2003 from the Minister of Finance, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, to the Controller and Accountant-General, and it was to enable the National Security Coordinator to “undertake emergency Security Operations outside Ghana”.

The amount, which was in response to a request letter from the Chief of Staff, Office of the President, dated November 12, 2003, was also not budgeted for since it was also charged to the Contingency Vote under Specific Warrant No. SPW/NSC/CF/QTR4/AFR/03.

Who is Responsible?

An interesting question arising out of these two requests is, “who is responsible for the National Security Coordinator's requests for funds?”

It will be noted that the request for the release of November 4, 2003 was put in directly by the National Security Coordinator, whilst the request for release of November 14 was put in by the Chief of Staff for the money to be released to the Chief of Staff.

Whither Accountability?

What does all this mean for accountability and how can any value-for-money audit be conducted in these circumstances when the nation's monies are released “waa, waa, waa” just like that under cover of security operations?

This manner of releasing monies “waa, waa, waa” seems to be part of the raison d'etre of the NPP Government. Remember the HIPC monies? ¢1.3 trillion was released by the Minister of Finance just two weeks ago at a Press Conference just like that - no Parliamentary approval, no pre-auditing, no pre-programmes or projects, and no accountability.

And remember what we published in our issue Vol. 10 No. 63 of Friday, June 4-Monday, June 7, 2004.

The hefty amount of ¢425,578,690.25 was released just like that to Baafuor Awuah & Associates for just one audit of just one transaction, involving the NVTI in which the NPP Government had hoped to catch the former NDC Minister of Employment and Social Welfare, Hon. Mohammed Mumuni, in some financial impropriety. Hon. Mumuni has turned the tables on them and has ended up suing the audit firm and some of the newspapers that carried the false story.