After digging through a maze of email conversations by top management of Fareast Mercantile to unravel how cartons of an almost one-year-old expired biscuits were sold during the Christmas festivities in 2021, DUBAWA’s attention was turned to Edward Sarpong, one of the kingpins, with a reputation for buying and selling expired products, mostly non-consumables.
On March 17, 2022, we had information which suggested he was at the Fareast warehouse (non-food section) and was likely to purchase some expired products.
We quickly made our way to the warehouse to begin our surveillance and tracking activities. A day before that though, we intercepted what had become a normal routine – the curious e-mails. Only this time, no specific reference was made in the mail to suggest the goods had expired, except the person to whom they were to sell the stocks to, gave the plot away.
The trail of email conversations started by the head of Finance at Fareast, Aney Mate, on March 16, 2022 was sent to Saurabh Sharma, the Logistics and Supply Chain Manager; and copied to the General Manager for Sales (Non-food), Raja Mohammed. The mail was essentially to communicate the processes of documentation and prices covering a stock, suspected to be expired goods meant for the market.
Before going to the warehouse on March 17, we had these e-mail-listed products in mind. Our objective was to find out if the products Sarpong had come to buy and was about to load into his truck had any similarity to those detailed in the mail the day before and whether or not any of those products had expired.
The results were all too striking. Just as was detailed in the mail, our cameras captured some of the products which included Airwick FM Refill LAV & CAM 6*1, Harpic Gel Citrus, 725 ML X 12, Airwick FM Complete LAV & CAM 4EA*1, Harpic Gel Lavender-450MLX12, Airwick Cedar and Oranger Anti Tobacco 300MLX12 under “cash sales.” Some of those products had expired in September 2021.
Around 3:30 pm, Sarpong was done loading his truck with the goods. Skilled at what they do, they would pack the expired products first into the truck and then later cover them with cartons of wholesome Dettol.
After documentation, Sarpong’s truck set off from Fareast Mercantile’s warehouse which is almost opposite the Coca Cola company at Spintex. Right from the Spintex to Accra CMB, a traffic laden 13.7 km journey, DUBAWA tracked the truckload of products to be sure of the final destination and monitored how the products were offloaded by strong men and head potters (kaya yei) into mini-shops located within the heart of CMB.
Truck finally arrives at CMB to be offloaded
‘The Bogger dealer’
On March 29, 2022, DUBAWA again mounted another surveillance at the Fareast Warehouse and monitored how another dealer, known only as ‘Bogger,’ bought margarines and biscuits suspected to have expired from Fareast warehouse.
He is known for dealing in expired consumables such as margarines, biscuits, soft drinks and is believed to have recruited a number of dealers some of whom have since cut ties with him to go solo. On March 29 when many Ghanaians had a final crucial world cup qualifying play-off to think about against Nigeria, Bogger was thinking business.
He got to the warehouse around 2:00pm and loaded the goods into the same truck used by Sarpong and transported them into the heart of CMB. DUBAWA, as usual, followed the truck right from the warehouse at Spintex roundabout to its final destination – just about four-five minutes walk away from where Sarpong had previously offloaded his. The products were here also offloaded into mini-shops and warehouses at the CMB.
The margarines and other products suspected to have expired finally arrives at CBM
Arrest of Sarpong
On March 30, an email was sent by Mate to Sharma, and other leaders of the company with the subject “Cash sales” indicating another transaction was afoot. This time, the expiry date of the product was clearly indicated.
Raja Mohammed, the General Manager for Sales (Non-food) and the contact person for Unilever at Fareast Mercantile, who was copied in the mail, replied with prices of the goods. His reply was only copied to Aney, Head of Finance.
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