The government may question appointees in the erstwhile John Mahama administration if the ongoing probe into the Komenda Sugar Factory implicates them, the Trades Minister has revealed.

“I want to wait for one thing to happen; those who are talking, they will stop talking,” the Minister of Trades and Industry, Alan Kyeremanten, hinted of the ongoing probe.

Three years since its commissioning, the 35 million dollar factory remains defunct.

The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo

The president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, says the government is in the process of finding a strategic investor to revive the “debt-ridden and idle” Komenda Sugar Factory.

He made this known on Friday, September 14, 2018, when he addressed a durbar of chiefs and people of Komenda, in the Central Region at the commencement of his 4-day tour of the Region.

According to the president, the sale is due to serious deficiencies which have riddled the factory.

These deficiencies, he said, include the unavailability of sugarcane in sufficient quantities in the catchment area, as well as inadequate working capital required to make the factory functional.  

The Minister of Trades and Industry subsequently told Parliament in April 2019, the factory will be sold to a new investor at a depreciated value of 12 million dollars.

The NDC Member of Parliament for Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem, Samuel Atta Mills

The minority in Ghana’s parliament has variously insinuated that the depreciated value of the factory is due in part to corruption.

The NDC Member of Parliament for Komenda Edina Eguafo Abirem, Samuel Atta Mills, has been leading that charge.

“My goodness! If they are valuing this factory at 12 million dollars that is armed robbery. How can a country borrow 35 million dollars to build a factory and within a very short time you tell me this factory has been valued at 12 million dollars? This is armed robbery.

“The Auditor-General needs to get involve and investigate. The Special Prosecutor needs to get involve and investigate.

“If it is the same company that valued it at 35 million dollars when NDC [National Democratic Congress] was in power and it is valuing it at 12 million dollars when NPP [New Patriotic Party] is in power [then] May God forgive us,” he told Joy News. 

Komenda Sugar factory

On the back of that accusation, the Minister of Trades and Industry has hinted his outfit’s ongoing probe is revealing that those who built the factory have more questions to answer.

According to him, preliminary investigations have revealed that the NDC government intended selling the factory at a much-discounted price than the 12 million dollars his government is contemplating.

“They commissioned the factory in May and within two months they were already selling the factory. The evidence is clear. Those who were bidding for the factory two months after its commissioning, go and look at the figures they were quoting,” Alan Kyeremanteng told participants at town hall meeting.

The former Minister of Trades and Industry, Ekow Spio-Garbrah, has since been absolving his government from blame. According to him the real value of the factory should not be a subject of media debate and speculations because sufficient records exist to settle the debate. 

“The fact is that it is a loan from the Indian government. The Ministry of Finance can confirm from the India government if the value of the factory is 35 million dollars or not.

“Between the Ministry of Finance, Comptroller and Accountant-General and the Auditor-General, it can also be inferred how much of that money was disbursed towards the construction of the factory,” Spio Garbrah told Joy News.

Ekow Spio-Garbrah is a former minister of Trade and Industry

According to the former minister, if the facility is less than the estimated 35 million dollars, the government should go for a refund of the remaining 23 million dollars or  pay12 million dollars when servicing the loan. 

Mr. Spio- Garbrah explained further that the government cannot hide behind depreciation to abandon its responsibility. According to him when any project is abandoned its value depreciates. The government may, therefore, have to answer for the depreciated value since it was the government’s decision not to use the factory all these years.

“All machinery needs to be maintained, oiled and greased on a periodic basis. But if a government chooses to leave a factory with all of its equipment to rot, then obviously, you will not have the value you had before. The current government simply wants to shift responsibility for their causing a loss to the state,” he added.

Alan Kyeremanten is the minister for Trade and Industry

Mr. Spio-Garbrah, however, denied any claim that his government wanted to sell the factory for far less than the 12 million dollars. “I was not involved in any such transaction,” he told Joy News’ Ernest Manu.

Revealing what transpired, he said that the government made of civil servants and politicians. were not going to run a sugar factory. They had therefore advertised for a private sector involvement for which a strategic investor was ready to pay 25 million dollars for 70 percent stake in the factory.

The back and forth has incensed people of the community who look up to the running of this factory to provide jobs for them.

“It is very frustrating. I am unemployed. That is depressing me because I cannot take care of my family. Every day I walk past this factory I get angry. Did we not use the money to build this factory? It is puzzling that for two years we cannot get investors to get this factory running,” a resident of Komenda told reporters of Joy News.