Did Bawumia steal 10,000 bags of rice? Here are the facts

On February 10, 2023, the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) announced that it had arrested and charged four individuals for failing to comply and declare their sources of income.

The four, consisting of three public officials and a civil servant, are being investigated for their roles in suspected corruption in the importation and auctioning of some ten thousand bags of rice into the country.

Four days after the OSP made the announcement, on February 14, 2024, the National Communications Officer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, claimed that Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s office orchestrated the suspected corrupt act.

“According to the Special Prosecutor, the office of the Vice President, @MBawumia used fictitious documents to steal a businessman’s imported consignment of 10,000 bags of rice for Ramadan donations,” he posted on X.

Mr Gyamfi has mentioned this statement on Asempa FM, an Accra-based radio station.  He also referred to the issue in a recent press conference the NDC held on the Agyapa deal following the release of the Auditor-General report.

“This is the man who attempted to steal ten (10) containers of rice belonging to a Ghanaian businessman for Ramadan donations, through his Director of Administration. As we speak, the said Director of Administration is currently being prosecuted by the OSP. Yet, he still works at the office of the Vice President till date,” Sammy Gyamfi said at a press conference.

His deputy, Maleek Basintale, most recently also reemphasized this on an X space.

Fact-Check Ghana has verified this claim and presents the facts below.

In 2022, a businessman who had imported 10,000 bags of rice into Ghana petitioned the OSP because he was told at the Tema Port that another person had laid claim to his goods. This was after he had gone through all the required processes to clear the goods.

According to media reports, before he petitioned the OSP, the businessman reported the issue to the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA). After the GRA examined the businessman’s documents and that of Mr Issah Seidu, the individual who had also claimed ownership of the imported goods, the authority determined that the bags of rice belonged to the businessman and that the documents presented by Mr Seidu were fake.

After this decision by the GRA, Mr Seidu filed two suits in court to prevent the GRA from releasing the goods to the businessman.

All the while, the Director of Administration at the Vice President’s Office, James Keck Osei, had already written a letter to the Commissioner General of the Ghana Revenue Authority.

Mr Osei’s letter, dated April 27, 2022, requested the Commissioner General to assist the Vice President’s Office in clearing 15 containers from the Tema Port. These containers were the imported bags of rice which the GRA had determined belonged to the businessman. The letter stated that the Vice President’s Office needed the rice to “support Ramadan festivities”.

However, the GRA did not comply with the request. This was because it had become apparent to the Authority that different individuals had laid ownership claims to the goods.

After two months, on July 5, 2022, Mr Osei wrote to the GRA again. This time, he asked the Commissioner General to ignore his earlier letter because “The Office (of the Vice President) wish to withdraw the earlier letter sent to your office and any action carried on based on that request to be cancelled.”

It was during this time that the businessman petitioned the OSP to prevent the individuals from stealing his goods.

In December 2022, the OSP served notice to Issah Seidu, James Keck Osei, John Abban and Peter Archibold Hyde to declare their sources of property and income. However, after 30 days, the four, who were being investigated for corruption offences regarding the importation and auctioning processes of the containers of rice, failed to provide the OSP with the requested information.

The OSP therefore charged them with the offence of “failing to comply with a lawful demand of an authorised officer of The Special Prosecutor in the performance of his functions,” according to a charge sheet dated February 10, 2023.

The announcement by the OSP revealed that Mr Seidu and Mr Osei work at the National Insurance Commission and the Office of the Vice President, respectively. Mr Abban and Mr Hyde are senior Officers with the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority.

On February 14, 2023, a day after the OSP’s prosecutor revealed in court that the businessman had said he had come across documents from the Vice President’s Office asking for the goods to be released to support Ramadan festivities, Dr Bawumia’s office released a statement.

The statement said the two letters James Keck Osei wrote to the GRA’s Commissioner General were unauthorised by the Vice President’s Office. The statement added that the issue came to the attention of the Office of the Vice President in September 2022, when the OSP invited Mr Osei to assist in investigations related to rice importation. It further indicated that “only” the Secretary to the Vice President is mandated to write letters on his behalf.

The OSP is still investigating the substantive case although it discontinued the case against the four regarding their failure to comply and declare their income within a month. This is because three of the individuals under investigation complied with the request.

From the facts above, it is clear that an individual from the Vice President’s Office, James Keck Osei, is being investigated regarding the importation and auctioning of some ten thousand bags of rice into the country. However, the Vice President’s office has disassociated itself from Mr Osei’s actions, which are still being investigated by the Office of the Special Prosecutor. Therefore, the claim that Dr Bawumia’s office used fictitious documents to steal the 10,000 bags of rice is misleading.