President Nana Akufo-Addo
US-based consulting firm, KRL International LLC, has stated that recent reports by Open Source Investigations (OSI) on its support for the 2016 presidential campaign of President Nana Akufo-Addo and the Government of Ghana lack credibility.
KRL International LLC made this known in a statement dated August 26, 2020.
OSI claims to be a non-partisan, independent investigative website.
However the website had consistently carried critical and negative reports on Akufo-Addo as if it had been contracted by opponents of the president from his days in opposition till now.
According to the statement, a recent article published anonymously on the website Open Source Investigations deliberately misinterpreted public documents which KRL filed with the U.S. Department of Justice in 2016 and 2017 to imply that public funds were improperly used by the Government of Ghana to support political activities.
KRL says in its statement that “this was not the case. KRL had separate contracts to work with the campaign and with the Government, which were financed separately, as appropriate, and made available under U.S. laws to the U.S. Department of Justice.”
It says KRL International LLC has in recent time been the subject of three attacks.
The statement added that “OSI’s reports lack authors, attribution, fact checking and credibility.”
The statement threatened that “KRL will be filing a formal legal complaint against the site once we can determine its ownership, management, and editorial team,” saying “none of this information is publicly disclosed. Journalists who cite their content should conduct their due diligence, or they put their own reputations at risk.”
According to the statement, prior to Akufo-Addo’s inauguration on January 7, 2017, KRL had a contract with the ‘I am for Nana Foundation’ in support of his campaign, followed by an agreement with the Office of the President-elect to offer support during the transition period.
It said several months after, President Akufo-Addo took office and established a cabinet, KRL signed its first agreement with the Government of Ghana to provide support to the Ministry of Finance.
It did not state the kind of support it was contracted to provide to the Finance Ministry.
Pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), KRL has always submitted timely and transparent reporting to the U.S. Justice Department on all work with foreign governments and political parties.
“These reports are submitted twice annually: at the end of August, covering the six month period of February 1- July 31, and at the end of February, covering a reporting period from August 1 of the previous year through January 31.
It stressed that “the document of which OSI cites as a “contract extension” dated 28 February 2017 is in fact a reporting document submitted to the Department of Justice on that date. This report refers to a “contract extension in this reporting period [August 1, 2016 – January 31, 2017] between KRL International LLC and the Office of the President-elect for Ghana.
It added that “this extension covered support provided by KRL between the end of the campaign and the President’s inauguration.”