P.V Obeng: I took no bribe

Paul Victor Obeng: My hands are clean. I think it is completely false and unfounded. I cannot see the ex-president stooping so low as to do what he is reported to have done. And in any case, it was never discussed in government that we should grant monopoly and no monopoly indeed was granted to SCANCEM. P.V. Obeng A former Presidential Adviser under the NDC, Mr. Paul Victor Obeng has denied allegations that he took bribe from a Norwegian Cement Company SCANCEM to facilitate the sustenance of GHACEM's monopoly in Ghana. An official of SCANCEM previously stationed in Africa who is being prosecuted in Norway for embezzlement is reported to have told the trial court in Norway that he paid over four million dollars into two separate accounts purportedly owned by P.V. Obeng and former First Lady, Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings as bribe. Media publications from the court proceedings have suggested that P.V Obeng admitted taking over 2 million dollars from the company but explained that it was payment for consultancy services he rendered. But speaking to Joy News’ Evans Mensah from London, Mr. Obeng denied ever making any such admissions. “I could have kept the fact that I have done some work for them, but I think that one has to be open, sincere and truthful. Sometime after I left office I set up my consultancy company and indeed I have served various companies in this same kind of capacity, even though some of them have been on short term basis. “I was approached by this company after I had left office and after I had set up my company in 1997 to be on retainership and to provide consultancy services not just about their perspectives in Ghana but all in Africa. I did this work two clear years after I had left government.” P.V. said he was paid by the company either in cash or by cheques, but he was not in a position to tell if the company did establish an account in his name through which it saved or sent money for his payments. Asked how the company delivered the money meant for his payment, PV said periodically when the SCANCEM officials came down for board meetings with GHACEM, he held appraisal meetings with them on their portfolio here and other matters, and if any payment was due that was ‘when they did it’. PV said he would not know what motivated the SCACEM CEO to allege that he was paying bribes to him and Nana Konadu. “I really honestly would not know why he would say a thing like this.” Told that the suspect says he paid the money to him, Nana Konadu and ex-President Rawlings so the company’s monopoly in the production and distribution of cement in the country would be sustained, PV said it was completely false. “I think it is completely false and unfounded. I cannot see the ex-president stooping so low as to do what he is reported to have done. And in any case, it was never discussed in government that we should grant monopoly and no monopoly indeed was granted to SCANCEM.” PV told Joy News his consultancy for the company was to assess policy direction and advise on how it affected their operations so they could make the necessary adjustments and also putting his ears on the ground for complaints and measures to address them, as well as human resource positions. Source:www.myjoyonline.com