Founding President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe has said that the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has done nothing wrong in the move to sell its hotels.
He says he will not support the idea of making government entities manage commercial enterprises in Ghana.
Regarding the sale of the hotels to Agric Minister Bryan Acheampong, he said that he was yet to hear any concrete proof that Bryan Acheampong stole public money to engage in any business
His comment comes at a time when North Tongu lawmaker Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has criticized the move to sell the hotel to Mr Acheampong.
In a post on his Facebook page, Mr Cudjoe said “Frankly, SSNIT has done nothing wrong in divesting the hotels. Alternative sale values should be suggested by those who disagree. Finally, I am yet to hear any concrete proof that Bryan Acheampong stole public money to engage in any business. Those are the matters that really matter. I will never support any government entity to manage commercial enterprise in Ghana.”
The Minister of Food and Agriculture Bryan Acheampong openly dared Ablakwa to substantiate claims regarding his Rock City Hotel’s financial status. Bryan went ahead to say that if Ablakwa is able to substantiate the claims he would gift him his properties in East Legon and some of hotels.
This followed allegations by Ablakwa that documents intercepted from the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) indicate that Rock City Hotel Limited, a company owned by the Agric Minister and MP for Abetifi, is running at a loss and hence unfit to buy the lucrative and profit-making SSNIT hotels.
Acheampong categorically denied these assertions, dismissing them as baseless and without merit. “I heard Okudzeto making allegations of intercepting some documents from GRA but he has no such documents, there is nothing true in that statement, they are all lies,” Acheampong told host of Yen Nsempa, Nana Yaa Brefo on June 19.
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The Minister further elaborated, stating that according to information he received from the hotel’s management, Rock City Hotel has yet to file its taxes for the year 2023 and for that reason not even GRA knows the financial status of the company to say it is operating at a loss.
“Managers of Rock City have reported to me that they haven’t filed their 2023 taxes; they will be filed by the end of June. So, they haven’t been filed yet. Where did Okudzeto get the supposed documents, he’s talking about from GRA, because the Managers of Rock City haven’t filed them yet, where did he get the said documents from?” Acheampong questioned.
But Ablakwa has told him that he does not need any of his properties after stating that he does not perform his oversight role for personal gains or gifts.
“I don’t need any of those things, I am not doing what I am doing for personal gains and gifts…I have always maintained that public officials should stay away from public properties,” he said on the Key Points on TV3 Saturday, June 22.
