Twum Boafo
The former Executive Secretary of the Ghana Free Zones Board (GFZB), Kwadwo Twum-Boafo, seems to be ‘hot’ over the scandal at the Authority which is being probed by the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO).
According to DAILY GUIDE’s sources, he has already started returning monies belonging to the authority to EOCO in what appears to be a desperate attempt to avoid prosecution.
He has returned a sum of $6,000 and €6,500 he allegedly took as imprest to EOCO.
Mr. Twum-Boafo is under investigation by the anti-graft body, and sources say the return of the funds which were part of a travel imprest does not mean he would be ‘exonerated.’
Currently, the case docket on the Authority has been forwarded to the Attorney General’s Department for advice, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the top National Democratic Congress (NDC) official is not likely to go scot-free.
Sources say he took the imprest when he was Secretary of the Free Zones Board, and it came up during EOCO’s forensic audit into the operations of board.
An imprest is a sum of money usually advanced to an individual for a specific purpose and restored to a fixed amount on a periodic basis.
This paper has gathered that the amount Mr. Twum-Boafo received as imprest in his capacity as the Executive Secretary of Free Zones was huge.
Initially, he ‘refused’ to return the ‘unretired’ amount until EOCO investigations traced the said transaction.
He was then forced to return the overpaid imprest apparently with the hope that it would save him from prosecution.
Mr. Twum-Boafo was appointed by former President John Mahama in 2013 after he served in an acting capacity at that state agency under former President John Evans Atta Mills.
By Melvin Tarlue