[ 2021-02-15 ]

Agyapa Royalties transaction in national interest — Godfred Dame
The Minister for Justice and Attorney
General-designate, Mr Godfred Yeboah Dame, has
indicated that the Agyapa transaction to monetise
some of Ghana’s gold royalties was done in the
national interest and in accordance with the laws
of the land.
With over two hours of his marathon six hours and
forty-five minutes vetting devoted to Agyapa
Royalties, Mr Dame took his time to argue that the
Finance Minister, his deputy and promoters of
Agyapa were unfairly criticised in the
controversial report of the Special Prosecutor.



The Minority Leader, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, who is
also a lawyer, seemed visibly surprised when the
nominee stated that Mr Martin Amidu did not
interview Mr Ken Ofori-Atta, his deputy, Mr
Charles Adu Boahen and anybody else involved with
the transaction before he concluded his damning
report on the transaction in October last year.

Mr Dame told the Appointments Committee of
Parliament last Friday that at every step of the
way, the Ministry of Finance and, for that matter
the government, put the interest of the nation
first and not the interests of any individual,
organisation or group of persons.

"Mr Chairman, with all respect, I don't see any
vitiating factor with regard to the transaction,"
he said.

Signing authority



The Special Prosecutor, on his own, called for
documents covering the transaction and completed
what he called an anti-corruption risk and risk of
corruption assessment on the deal done under the
mandate of the Minerals Income Investment Fund
(MIIF), which was set up by an Act of Parliament
passed in 2018.

The former Deputy Attorney under President Nana
Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo’s first term, invited
parliamentarians to ignore the indicting aspects
of the report because the whole exercise was
undertaken not as a criminal investigation but an
“assessment” and one that breached the basic
natural justice rule of allowing the one under
scrutiny to be heard.

He described Mr Amidu’s report as a mere
“opinion” of no direct legal effect.

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Addressing one of the observations of the report,
which has to do with whether or not the country's
laws were breached because the Deputy Minister of
Finance then, Charles Adu Boahen, was the one who
signed for and on behalf of the government,
instead of the substantive Minister, Mr
Ofori-Atta, quoting from statutes, Mr Dame
explained that the law gives authority to the
Finance Minister to allow his deputy or any other
person not below the rank of Director that the
minister might authorise.

"The capacity to execute a financial agreement has
been indicated in the Public Financial Management
Act, 2016 (Act, 921). In there, you find that Mr
Chairman, the capacity is given to the Minister
for Finance or any person that the Minister of
Finance may authorise," Mr Dame said.



"In the light of this, it becomes quite clear that
the Deputy Minister of Finance, if he was
authorised by the Minister of Finance, has full
capacity to enter into the agreement," the
Attorney General-designate added.

Parliamentary approval not required

A major subject of disagreement pertaining to the
corruption risk assessment carried out by the then
Special Prosecutor (SP), is his findings that the
Mandate Agreement between the lead transaction
advisor, Imara, and its local partner, Databank
Group, was unconstitutional because it should be
treated as “an international transaction” and,
by that, required the approval of Parliament.

Mr Dame disagreed, arguing that the transaction
advisory role was not the main transaction but an
agreement to build the structure and building
blocks towards the ultimate objective of listing
the Agyapa Royalties Company on both the London
and Accra stock markets.

"I will submit finally that to the extent that
Parliament had considered and approved the
substantive agreement itself, the primary
agreement being the Minerals Royalties Agreement,
other agreements like the approval of a
transaction advisor ought not to have come before
this honourable house for approval," the Minister
for Justice-designate told the 26-member committee
of Parliament.

Mr Dame maintained that a contract to facilitate
the main transaction could not be viewed as a
major transaction regardless of the fees.

Imara and its local partner, Databank, stood to
earn a percentage of the amount raised for the
listing as success fee capped at $4m to be shared
between the two.

Imara is on a $15,000 monthly retainer, which the
contract states will be deducted from the success
fee at the end of Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Databank’s partnership deal with Imara excluded
the Ghanaian entity from the monthly retainer, and
billed to be paid at the end of the floatation in
success fee.

Source - Joyfm

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