About 22 years after the controversial sale of Ghana’s Drill Ship, the man who was at the centre of the transaction at the time, K. T. Hammond believes he deserves a national award for his sterling role in the deal.
The current Member of Parliament for Adansi Asokwa and Minister Designate for Trade and Industry who was the Deputy Minister of Energy at the time of the sale of ship believes he does not deserve the vilification and the name-calling for what he describes as unsubstantiated corruption allegation levelled against him with respect to the transaction.
Appearing before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Monday, February 20, 2023, K. T. Hammond took his time to narrate the sequence of events leading to the decision to sell the ship to a Finnish company.
He explained that GNPC at the time was heavily indebted after defaulting in loan it secured using the Drill Ship as a collateral. Due to the default by GNPC, the ship was impounded by the creditors.
Following the development which was pending at the Court of England, the President Kuffour-led administration nominated him to go and represent the country due to his qualification to practise at the English Bar. He recounted that Ghana’s case was not favourable considering the facts of the matter hence the best option available was to settle.
He revealed that the creditors demanded an accumulated amount of $47 million. However, upon his ingenuity, he was able to beat the amount down to $19.5 million saving the country more than half of the initial debt.
Government therefore decided to sell the Drill Ship and used the proceeds to defray the $19.5 million debt.
He stressed that there is nothing corrupt about the deal but however noted that he even deserves a national reward for the role he played in the whole transaction which he saved the country millions of dollars.
“We were informed about this development and the fact that the matters were pending in the court of London, England. At cabinet, my minister put up this issue. The Attorney-General at that time had considered the issues and they were clear in their minds that the position of Ghana was hopeless. We had gone and then we had taken this loan and collateralized the ship. GNPC had defaulted and this is how the debt came about,” he recounted.
He added that, “there was no way of pleading the case but to settle. This is where I entered frame. I was informed that since I was a practicing barrister at the bar of England and Wales and this matter was pending at the Court of England, in London and since I was related to the Ministry of Energy, it was suggested that I should go and find out what we could do.”
“They were asking for $47 million. Of the $47 million, following my arrangement and my going around and the compromise which the special commissioner states over there, they decided that instead of the $47 million that we had accumulated, they decided to charge $19.5 million. I think I need a national award for that. $47 million and we managed to get it to $19.5 million,” K. T. Hammond said.
