An Indian national, Ashok Kumar Sivaram, who was deported from Ghana a year ago, for alleged forgery of company’s document is said to be heading the ongoing fiber optic cable transmission project here, amidst rising eyebrows.
According to Ghanaian Court documents, case number D2/73/18, Kumar Sivaram was deported after he was found to have forged the signature of Sachin Nambeer, the original owner of Jai Mai Communications or JMC at the Ghana Registrar General’s office along with a local Ghanaian national, George Dankwa Otempong to re-register the company placing him as a 50 percent shareholder while Mr. Nambeer was away in India.
There are looming questions as to how Mr. Savaram surfaced in Liberia as implementer of the LIBTELCO fiber optic cables, which was originally awarded to CSquare, a company hired by LIBTELCO.
The connection of the fiber cable is expected to improve internet connectivity here at a faster speed, but the hiring of a man who is said to have been allegedly involved into forgery and presenting of fake documents is raising security concern.
Reports from Ghana indicate that Sivaram did not only forged his boss’s signature to re-register the company but he was also involve in another scam. Report say as part of effort to solidify his local backing, he married a Ghanaian, while he was still legally married to the sister of Sachin Nambeer, the original head of JMC.
That move by Sivaram also landed him in trouble with local Ghanaian authority, who described his marriage to the Ghanaian as fake, and therefore saw his marriage certificate as fake.
Sivaram game plan for marrying the Ghanaian while he was still marry to Nambeer’s sister was to obtained a Ghanaian citizenship, at least local reports and documents suggests.Sachin’s arranged marriage to the Ghanaian was exposed after he applied for his Ghanaian citizenship. His letter of application was questioned by the Ghana Immigration Service or GIS.
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=1]
“But under our law in Ghana, you have to divorce first before you remarry. He did not do so. He later apply for Ghanaian citizenship. When the authorities saw it, they arrested him,” one source with knowledge of the case said.
Sachin was deported from Ghana in June of last year, according to documents and reports from Ghana.When a member of our team of investigators contacted the offices of CSquare on Tuesday October 16, 2018, for comment, a Ghanaian national who only identified himself as the HR (Human Resource) Officer declined to comment referring the paper to his lawyer.
One of the lawyers he referred our team to for comment told one of the journalists: “I am not aware of this. But please call me tomorrow. I will check with the law firm on this because we have people who work on contracts for various companies. I will be prepared to speak on that.”
Sivaram’s deportation is not a secret in Ghana as several Ghanaian media including Joy news and the Ghanaian Daily Graphic.In one of the reports, his deportation was tied to the fact that he lied the GIS using a fake marriage certificate to support his application for a permanent residence permit and this led to his repatriation in June last year following an order issued by the Interior Minister in May 2017.
The running of the fiber cables worth hundreds of thousands of United States Dollar. There are concern as to how JMC was brought into the contract without a due diligence from the PPCC and the LIBTELCO management.
Dr. Lawrence Bropleh, former Information Minister is said to also have direct link with JMC. Dr. Bropleh did not answer his phone when his number was called and rang several times. He also did not return calls up to press time.Mr. Sivaram office was also called for inquiry, but there was also no respond. More detail.
