When Ghana was awarded the right to host the 26th
edition of the African Cup of Nation in the year 2008, a tender committee board was set up by the then
Local Organizing Committee (LOC), on behalf of the Ministry of Education, Youth
and Sports to receive proposals from interested construction companies and
joint ventures for possible award of contract for the construction of two new
stadia in Takoradi and Tamale as well as the rehabilitation of the then Accra
and Kumasi sports stadia. Upon intensive perusal and scrutiny of the various
proposals received, the tender committee board recommended that, the contract
be awarded to one Vamed Construction Group, which later sold its right to
Waterville Engineering Company which had proposed to construct the two stadia
at the cost of $78 million.
This recommendation was then submitted to cabinet
pending final ratification into a valid contract or otherwise. The
recommendation however, did indicate some concerns and reservations about the
ability of Waterville to execute the project within the limited period
available as per CAF's deadline at the time. In view of the above reason and
cognizant of the exigencies of the time, the Kuffour government, with recourse
to Parliament, brought in the Shangai Construction Group that had proposed to
execute the same project and at a relatively far lower cost of only $48 million
as against the $78 million proposed by Waterville thereby making savings of
whopping $30 million for the State. Upon losing the contract to construct the
two new stadia apparently because of the relatively huge money they quoted,
Waterville Consortium was then given an alternative to do rehabilitation works
on the Elwak, Kumasi, and Accra stadia which they committed to.
After executing the rehabilitation works on the
aforementioned three stadia, the Kufuor government paid them paid 11 million
euros in FULL SETTLEMENT of compensation for work done. (for EMPHASIS, they
were NOT paid this 11 million euros as a result of contract abrogation in
respect of the construction of the two new stadia, Tamale and Takoradi because
that contract was not awarded to them when it became apparent that they could
not even meet the condition precedence to start with). Waterville, after
receiving this money indeed wrote a letter back to the government, indicating
their acceptance and satisfaction of the amount paid them in respect of the
work they had done (renovation of the existing stadia). Ideally, this should
have certainly been the end of the matter.
However, when the NDC assumed the reins of
governance in 2009, this same Waterville made an astonishing u'turn and wrote
to the NDC government seeking compensation for contract abrogation and payment
of money owed them to the tune of 33 million euro as they claimed. This was
where Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome, a self-acclaimed NDC financier came into the
picture when he also wrote a letter dated 28/08/2009 to the government
challenging the claims of 33 million euro made by Waterville and argued that it
was him that the nation owed for financial engineering he claimed to have done
for the CAN 2008 project; (as if he has ever been contracted by the Government
of Ghana). He claimed to be owed 6 million euro for illegal termination of
contract in this respect. I know you are shocked at this development. Wait for
more startling revelations.
Upon receipt of a copy of Woyome’s letter,
Waterville Holdings quickly instructed their lawyer, Mr. Kwame Tetteh to write
to the government reacting to the false claims made by Woyome, where they
argued that Woyome and his consortium M-Powerpak was only one of their
agents/employees, whom they contracted to “provide Waterville with financial
engineering but the relationship was terminated by a Termination Agreement
dated 25th November 2006…… M-Powerpak’s and Woyome’s claims against Waterville
were fully settled and acknowledged in the Agreement…….We must add that the
stadia contracts were contracted between Waterville and the Government of
Ghana…; neither M-Powerpak nor Woyome was a party. It is therefore wrong for
Woyome or M-Powerpak to make a claim in a contract of which none is a party.”
(Source, EOCO Report).
Despite all the cautions coming from Waterville
regarding Woyome’s dubious claims, the government still allowed this man
together with his accomplices in government to rise on the recklessness,
criminal negligence and foolhardiness of senior public officials, including
Ministers of State to dupe the good people of Ghana of a wanton 520 billion old
cedis. For instance, the former AG, Madam Betty Mould Iddrisu, upon receiving
Woyome’s first claim where he indicated that, the nation owed him; never
requested of Woyome to provide any documentary evidence to prove his claims as
any "reasonable person" would do. She never bothered to ask if he had
a contract with the Ghana government which was wrongfully/illegally terminated.
Instead, her outfit shockingly concluded that the nation had no defense against
Woyome’s claim. Ebo Barton Oduro (Deputy A-G) and NeeQueye Tetteh's (Senior
State Attorney) advice to the AG immediately comes to mind. They advised that
the nation had no defense to Woyome's claims. Shocking, isn't it?
Upon seeing a window of opportunity to defrauding
the State, Woyome at this juncture, ridiculously moved his claim from the
initial 6 million euros to 1 trillion cedis (which is worth 2% of the entire
cost of the project). The AG department surprisingly, accepted that the nation
was indeed liable without any checks and criminally proceeded to enter into a
settlement agreement with Woyome. However, in order to have some legal backing
to this manifest kleptomania, they went to court to obtain a consent or default
judgment, not on the merit of the case but because both parties had a mutual
agreement and were singing the same song; so the court had no option but to
grant them their wish. Madam Betty Mould Idrissu then went back and
renegotiated with Woyome for possible reduction of his claim of 1 trillion
cedis to a more reasonable amount. They then reached a settlement agreement
that Woyome be paid 480 billion cedis (less than half of his earlier claim).
Again, they had to go to the court for legal backing to the new mutual consent.
However, in providing the judgment (another default
judgment I must add), the presiding judge ordered that the amount be paid in 3
separate installments i.e. 170 billion cedis each payable as follows; 1st
installment be paid within the first week of July, 2010, 2nd installment be
paid by the end of July, 2010 and the 3rd installment by the end August 2010.
These payments, the court added, should be preceded by an undertaking to be
signed by Woyome to return the money back to the State in case he loses the
case eventually.
Notwithstanding the court's directive which was
very explicit, the government went ahead and illegally paid Woyome the entire
amount at once, in clear defiance of the court order. After disagreeing with
Woyome at the initial stages and upon realizing now that he (Woyome) was making
progress in his move to defraud the State, Waterville then joined and
collaborated with him in this stealing enterprise through the clandestine works
of some official CONSPIRATORS (including Ministers and Deputy Ministers) in
government to CREATE, LOOT and SHARE the taxpayer's money as observed by
Justice Dotse of the Supreme Court of Ghana.
All these facts were made evident in the 2010/11
Auditor General Report which broke the scandal. EOCO's intervention too has
been helpful in unraveling some of these mysteries. Not forgetting of late
president Mills' unequivocal instructions to his appointees to stop the
inordinate payments to Woyome which was nonetheless flouted with impunity (as
per the EOCO Report). Surprisingly, the only man who was interested in
retrieving our stolen money from Woyome and his government accomplices, (Hon.
Martin Hamidu) lost his position as AG at some point in time. This citizen
vigilante, Martin Hamidu exhibited unwavering commitment to fighting this
thievery and prosecuting all those involved including senior government
officials.
Isn’t Ghana an interesting country? The people
through whose criminal negligence, the nation lost huge sums of money were
allowed to remain at post; whereas the only man who had vowed to help the
nation retrieve every dime of that gargantuan money was rather fired. What a
world of paradox! No wonder the Supreme Court has, on countless occasions
vindicated Hon. Martin Hamidu anytime he went to court against Woyome but the
government, with all its powers and resources, loses every single case against
this infamous NDC financier. Obviously, things aren't adding up. The recent
acquittal and discharge of Woyome by the Appeals Court is a further testament
of how government, through the AG deliberately failed the poor Ghanaian
taxpayer because of political expediency.
In conclusion, this Woyomegate story would surely
go in history, as one of the greatest government-induced corruption scandals to
have hit the Republic of Ghana. The next generations would surely not forgive
us for this inestimable disservice for God and country. Posterity SHALL forever
be our judge. Long live my Motherland.
The end of this historic trip. You may want to
SHARE THE STORY for love of God and country.
Thank you.
A concerned Ghanaian in the struggle
IDDI MUHAYU-DEEN
Youth Activist /Social Commentator
Former NUGS Secretary
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