
Audio By Carbonatix
The African Parliamentarian's Network Against Corruption (APNAC) says government must seek international help in unraveling the mystery surrounding the sale of GNPC's Discover 511 drill ship.The scandal on Tuesday September 17 got murkier when the French bank, Societe General, who was paid $19.5 million in judgment debt from the sale of the ship, announced it has no records to show it received such an amount.Managing Director of the bank, Mr Gilbert Hie, told the Judgement Debt Commission, Chaired by Justice Yaw Appau, that the company came into existence in 2003 and has no idea about the payment that was made in 2001.He said after he was subpoenaed to appear before the Commission, he contacted the bank's legal department at their headquarters in Paris, France, but they also replied that they do not have documents on the $19.5 million judgment payment to the company.Mr Hie explained that by French law, such documents can be kept for a maximum of 10 years, adding that beyond this period the law does not require them to keep such records.Also, the Energy Ministry, Bank of Ghana (BoG) and GNPC have all failed to produce detailed documents covering the transaction.But Executive Director of APNAC, Daniel Batidam, has asked government to rely on existing international treaties to get to the bottom of the matter.Mr Batidam said both Ghana and France are signatories to the United Nations Conventions on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) which allows mutual legal assistance when the need arises."In other words our country can use its belongingness to the UNCTAD together with France to explore legal options to compliant companies such as Societe General to give information which otherwise they would not be willing to give", he said.He advised government and the Judgment Debt Commission to be mindful of "international mafia of highly professional people" who conspire to dupe states like Ghana.APNAC is Africa’s leading network of parliamentarians working to strengthen parliamentary capacity to fight corruption and promote good governance.
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