Joe

We need to get hold of the actual report, since
Gambian names have been witheld from this newspaper
article.

I don't want to guess, However, I believe the list
will contain names of the "fabulous" Five- AFPRC
military council.

Don't worry, I shall do my research to trace the names
involved in this scandal.

Have a wonderful weekend



 --- Joe Sambou <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Culled
from Allafrica.  Yet another example of the
> corruption that is
> Jammeh.  Remember when big brother Jerry Rollings
> was invited as the guest
> of honor by the criminal, that's around the time
> their criminal enterprise
> was hatched.  Thanks to The Independent for exposing
> these criminals.
> Please read on.
>
> Shady Foreign Kickbacks Traced Political Payments,
> Palm-Greasing Traced Back
> to 1996
>
> The Independent (Banjul)
>
> February 14, 2003
> Posted to the web February 14, 2003
>
> Jalamang Jammeh
> Banjul
>
> The Gambia has featured in a report, explaining
> kick-backs, political
> payments and "palm-greasing" that were part of a
> wider deal involving
> ex-President Jerry Rawlings' NDC, COTECNA, a
> Swiss-based business outfit and
> a prominent ring of Gambians (names withheld) dating
> back to 1996.
>
> Two Ghanaian newspapers late last year published the
> controversial report,
> which described the Gambian connection as the most
> interesting in a series
> of connection in Guinea, Gabon, Namibia and Trinidad
> and Tobago. The report
> claimed that Bright Akwetey, who was state counsel
> in The Gambia, had helped
> with "initiatives that had helped (us go up the
> ladder) and we are close to
> the top".
>
> Both the Crusading Guide (Vol 4, issue No 82) and
> Daily Guide (issue No 754)
> recently published a letter and articles by Kweku
> Baako Ghanaian Editor in
> Chief of the Crusading Guide, who claims to be
> working with a so-called
> Network of International Investigative Journalists
> and Professional
> Researchers, investigating, with a view to exposing
> the phenomenon of
> political payments, kick-backs and palm greasing
> which characterised both
> local and international business and trade
> transactions traced to The Gambia
> during the last four years of President Rawlings'
> reign in Ghana.
>
> The Crusading Guide carried a letter purportedly
> written by an influential
> Ghanaian, in which, among others, various countries
> are mentioned including
> Namibia, Gabon, Guinea, The Gambia and Trinidad and
> Tobago as part of a ring
> where kick-backs had circled covertly with the
> knowledge of the governments
> of these countries.
>
> A former state counsel was mentioned as having
> assisted in brokering a
> COTECNA deal in The Gambia and who was also expected
> to travel to
> Switzerland on August 27, 1996 to discuss some
> matters with an undisclosed
> person. According to findings, it was an undertaking
> that a major percentage
> of not less than 4 percent of any such deal should
> remain in the host
> country in the name of justice. Safeguards were also
> put in place to ensure
> that President Jerry Rawling's party benefit from
> the deal. But a close
> friend of the then Ghanaian leader had his worries.
> "COTECNA was going to
> have a field day as they tried to cut me out of the
> deal and proceeded to
> throw peanuts at the party (NDC) in order to save
> money, all in the name of
> the president", the letter quoted him as saying.
>
> "I shall then request that they pay, up-front all
> monies that will upon
> projection accrue on my account to the end of the
> contract period. This
> being election year (1996), it could go a long to
> help renew their contract,
> come 1997. I believe they should be happy to part
> with US$500, 000. We then
> share such monies equally as agreed with Honourable
> Abodakpi or as the
> president might deem fit. With me back on track, I
> will have no excuse but
> to go further afield and conquer other territories
> to our mutual benefit",
> the letter pointed out.
>
> "In future I would humbly suggest that the name of
> the president be the last
> resort in any business transactions as he should
> have the opportunity to
> deny any collusion in such matters. As it stands,
> the president cannot claim
> innocence of soliciting funds from the Messeys" the
> letter quoted the man as
> further suggesting.
>
> The portion of the 1996 letter pertaining to The
> Gambia as published by the
> two Ghanaian newspapers recently is reproduced
> hereunder: The Gambia: The
> Gambia is currently the most interesting account.
>
> Initiatives commenced sometime last year and with
> the help of Mr. Bright
> Akwetey, we have gone up the ladder and are now
> close to the top. On Friday,
> 16th August 1996, I had a call from Banjul to
> confirm that the Chairman
> (name withheld) is now aware and has accepted the
> proposal in principle. I
> should deem it expedient to fly over to Switzerland
> on the eve of the 27th
> August especially as Mr. Akwetey will then be in
> Geneva.
>
> I should then commit COTECNA - A Swiss-based
> pre-shipment inspection company
> - to their promised 7 percent out of which I intend
> to pay not less than 1.5
> percent to the party. It is my own general
> undertaking that a major
> percentage of not less than 4 percent should remain
> in the host country in
> the name of justice. The Gambia is a very small
> account and like Chad,
> COTECNA will be vying for 2 percent of Gross instead
> of 0.95, which pertains
> in Ghana.
>
> The Independent will pursue the matter with our
> Ghanaian contacts and the
> Network of International Investigative Journalists
> and Professional
> Researchers to learn more, and will accordingly keep
> our readers posted on
> Baako's findings and revelations.
>
> Background notes
>
> Remember Bright Akwetey? President Jerry Rawlings?
> BIVAC and the
> pre-shipment inspection programme introduced in The
> Gambia by the Jammeh
> government and greatly abhorred by Gambian
> businesspeople? What do they have
> in common?
>
> Akwetey the Ghanaian lawyer was sent by former
> President Jerry Rawlings to
> assist the then AFPRC military junta to prosecute
> former members of the
> ancien regime before commissions of enquiry. Then
> after doing the dirty
> work, apparently he fell out with the junta, and was
> dumped.
>
> Akwetey and his colleague Letsu were sent packing
> unceremoniously, after
> they were perceived as becoming too powerful
> (dangerous?) and expensive -
> they were being paid in foreign currency - some said
> hundreds of dollars per
> day - for their services.
>
> This also coincided with a cooling of relations
> between the military
> dictatorship in Banjul and Jerry Rawlings just as
> has now happened with
> Muammar Ghadaffi, after all the support and
> assistance he gave Jammeh and
> co. suggesting that they have no ideology or guiding
> principles, and like
> the Americans no permanent friends, only interests.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
=== message truncated ===

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