Former First Family cited in bribery allegation

The newspaper, Daily Graphic, says a bribery case being heard at the Asker and Baerum High Court in Norway has implicated former President Jerry Rawlings in a bribery case.Also alleged to have received monies thought to be bribes is Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the former First Lady, and Mr. P.V. Obeng, a special adviser to the then PNDC government.

The case, according to the publication, started in October 2005, and involves one Tor Egil Kjelsaas who had been sent to court by his employers, SCANCEM of Norway, the founders of GHACEM in Ghana, over an alleged bribery of some West African Heads of State involving huge sums of dollars.GHACEM, the, cement com¬pany in Ghana, until 1991 was owned by Norwegian investors, SCANCEM.Since the 60s, SCANCEM controlled the cement production in Ghana, Liberia, Togo, Sierra-Leone and beyond, often as a monopoly.

Kjelsaas who has been accused by his employers of theft was stationed in Africa to represent SCANCEM's interest.According to an investigative article published by a Norwegian Magazine – DN Magasinet – in April this year about the bribery allegedly perpetuated by Kjelsaas and titled, “Gray Cement - Black Money”, the magazine stated that proceedings from the court indicate an alleged bribery at the highest levels in Ghana, Togo and Nigeria.According to the report, Kjelsaas was believed to have paid huge sums of money to some African leaders in order to sustain SCANCEM's monopoly over supply of cement to the countries mentioned.The report went further to state, according to the court proceedings, that “in the mid 1990s, there were two anonymous bank accounts in Unibank S.A. Luxemburg and Barclays Bank S.A. in Geneva, Switzerland.

"These two accounts were earmarked for Ghana and huge sums of US dollars were deposited by SCANCEM in them.It said between 1993 and 1998 a total of US$1,690,000 was transferred to the Barclays Bank account and a total of US$2,460,000 was also paid into the Unibank account during the same period.The proceedings showed that SCANCEM management believed that the money deposited in the Barclays Bank account went to Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, and that of the Unibank went to Mr P.V. Obeng, then a special advisor to the PNDC regime headed by J.J. Rawlings.Testifying, however, Gerhard Heilberg, a SCANCEM official based in Ghana at the time, said Rawlings and his wife were among those who received money from SCANCEM.A testimony by former SCANCEM Finance Chief, G. Jacobsen, also said bribery in Ghana and Africa for that matter was done by cash payments.

The report further said a testimony by Tor Nygarrd, a management staff of SCANCEM who paid out the monies said they paid politicians, the party which is believed to be the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Ghana Port officials.He said special code forms were developed in Ghana for those who received the monies.

He said 14 of such coded forms were used and the date and amount for each recipient were recorded in Ghanaian cedis as well as US dollars.P.V. Obeng, however, in an interview with the magazine is reported to have claimed the monies were paid to him by SCANCEM for consultancy services.GHACEM had for a long time enjoyed a monopoly status in the production and supply of cement in Ghana.
Source:Daily Graphic