IDDI MUHAYU-DEEN'S FOLDER
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 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 3 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 NPP 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 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 government seeking compensation for a
certain contract abrogation and payment of compensation to the tune of 33
million euro per. This was where Mr. Alfred Woyome, the 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 a certain ‘financial engineering’ he claimed
to have done for the CAN 2008 project. He claimed to be owed 6 million euro for
illegal termination of contract in this respect. I know you are shocked but 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 some 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? It is not surprising that the EOCO report indicted these
people for receiving some of the “Woyome cash” through some inordinate bank
transfers.
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 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 by his own appointees (as per the EOCO
Report).
Surprisingly,
the only man who was interested in retrieving our stolen money from Woyome and
his official accomplices, Hon. Martin Hamidu lost his job as the Minister of
Justice and Attorney General at the time. This citizen vigilante (Martin Hamidu)
exhibited unwavering commitment to fighting this thievery and prosecuting all
those involved including his colleagues, Cabinet Ministers and other top
government officials. This was why he was fired by the so called apostles of
probity and accountability. We shall indeed know them by their deeds.
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 in the NDC government who had vowed to help the nation retrieve every dime
of that stolen money was rather fired. How paradoxical! No wonder the Supreme
Court has, on countless occasions vindicated Hon. Martin Hamidu anytime he went
to court against Woyome whereas the government, with all its State powers and
resources, loses every single case against the NDC financier. Obviously, the
logic doesn’t add up.
The
most annoying part of this narrative is the fact that, three good years after
the court ordered the NDC government to collect our stolen money from Woyome
through the legendary industry of Martin Hamidu, they have still not been able
to do that. To add insults to injury, only last week, they wrote to the court
saying the government is no more interested in pursuing the case in order to
retrieve our money from Woyome. This was after Woyome had threatened to expose
them if they pursued with the case against him. How dramatic!
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 we have done to our country. Posterity SHALL forever judge us. In
the meantime, I say, it is time to stop the stealing. It is time to stop the
corruption. It is time to stop the incompetence and mismanagement. It is time
to make Ghana work again and it is time to bring back the NPP to RESTORE our HOPE.
#Mutashi
#AriseForChange
#SayNoToNDC
#GhanaMustWorkAgain
Assalamu
alaikum
IDDI MUHAYU-DEEN
A Crusader for CHANGE
(0245335197)
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