The Minority spokesperson on Foreign Affairs, Samuel Okudzeto-Ablakwa, has said NDC MPs are satisfied with the responses of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) so far with regards to their petition on the $2.25billion bond.
SEC has appointed a case manager to handle the petition filed by the Minority.
Speaking to Class News on the appointment of the case manager, Mr Ablakwa was confident the US body would help unravel the truth behind the bond issuance.
“The United States Securities and Exchanges Commission is going ahead with investigations. So far, they have not said they lack information or they will need the Ghanaian parliament to assist them in anyway, so we are quite satisfied with the progress of work so far,” he stated.
“We successfully filed this petition on the 1st of May, less than two months and we already have two communications from them. One on our successful application and now we have a case manager who is taking over this investigation. And looking at the profile of the case manager, we are very impressed. They have given us a senior attorney who has considerable experience and expertise in these matters and so we expect that everything will be unravelled and we will all know the truth when it comes to the issues that we have raised concerning lack of transparency, conflict of interest, and insider trading so far as this transaction is concerned,” the North Tongu lawmaker said.
The US regulatory body will probe the issue in which US-registered company Franklin Templeton purchased 95 per cent of the 15-year and 7-year bonds.
The SEC will primarily be investigating suspected conflict of interest and insider trading which are violations of US law by Trevor G. Trefgarne, Director of Franklin Templeton and a Board Chairman of Enterprise Group – a company owned and founded by Ghana’s Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta.
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
