LIFT THE VEIL OF STX INCORPORATION AND CHECK THE PERSONALITIES BEHIND IT, NPP UK AND IRELAND says

We in NPP UK and Ireland have followed with interest the saga and scandal surrounding the STX housing deal that the government of NDC is hell bent on forcing down the reluctant throats of Ghanaians. A lot has been written and said about the deal and we have become increasingly worried about the tactics of the government in hurriedly withdrawing the bill and attempting to reintroduce it through the press.

The Parliament and the good people of Ghana have examined both the Off-taker Agreement signed in December 2009 by Hon Abongo and the subsequent MOU signed by Hon Bagbin in March 2010 and the weaknesses in both agreements forced the government to admit that all was not well with the deal. The people have examined the carelessness and callousness of the NDC government in signing up to terms in the agreement such as the double whammy of sovereign guarantee and insurance payment by the government of Ghana, the lack of clarity as to who the lender is, as Woori bank says they are not legally bound to honour the promise to offer the loan.

We are becoming increasingly worried about STX Korea and its corporate affiliates in Ghana and why they are growing in confidence over even the sovereign rights of Ghana as a country. A company once incorporated becomes a legal personality, a juristic entity, separate and distinct from its members and shareholders However, in some circumstances, the courts have intervened to disregard or ignore the doctrine of corporate personality and limited liability especially in dealing with group companies and subsidiaries and where the corporate form is being used as a vehicle to perpetrate fraud or as a "mere façade concealing the true facts." In this statement, we are asking the people of Ghana to support us in our call for the lifting of the veil and to see the circumstances surrounding the incorporation of STX in Ghana.

We will start our argument by first of all sharing with you below an excerpt and signatories of the memorandum of understanding which makes reference to the Off-taker Agreement and if you look at provision b.iii, you can begin to glean out the ultimate interest of STX Korea is not to build houses for us but the NDC government had agreed in principle to hand over to them the “GNPC's business relations in the oil and gas industry”

In the parent Off-taker agreement the NDC seemed to be in a hurry to agree to everything that STX demanded. We have lifted excerpts of the agreements below and signatories so that you can begin to see the reason why we think the agreement stinks. This is naive on the part of Abongo and downright criminal on the part of Bagbin and John Mahama, the Vice President.

You can begin to see why we believe the sleazy handprints of the NDC are all over the deal and the demand of STX for the government to secure parliamentary approval under “certificate of urgency” is a proof of a scam on us.

That is why we here in UK and Ireland of the NPP are asking Parliament and the good people of Ghana to lift the veil of incorporation and begin to ask who and who are behind the STX as a company and the Ghana National Housing Project. Our investigations at the Registrar General's Office in Accra has so far revealed that the corporate status of STX Engineering & Construction Ghana Limited at the Registrar Generals Department in Ghana has shareholders: STX Group (Korea) 15,000 units/shares; G K (Ghana Korea) Airports Ltd (Gh) 7,400 units/shares. The directors are Daniel Juing (Korean), Joseph B Asafo-Boakye (gh), Kook Hyun Kim (Korean), Su Jou Kim (Korean).

The CEO of STX Korea in Ghana is Mr. BK Asamoah The off taker agreement was also signed by this same man. He also doubles as the GK Holdings. This is a man whose shady deals in Ghana have been well publicised in the daily newspapers in Ghana, following his futile attempt to rip off the NPP administration in hundreds of thousands of dollars over a phantom railways deals with his Korean company. This is a man who until 2006 was a photographer at Asantehene's Palace in Kumasi. Ghanaians will also recollect that GK (Ghana Korea) Airports in October 2008 won a contract to expand Kumasi, Takoradi and Sunyani airports at cost of $122m but they could not raise the money.

The personalities behind a company can define what a company stands for. A case in point is Tsatsu Tsikata's Strategic Oil Ltd whose dealings for some reason could delay the lifting of the crude oil this year. An investigation by IFC and World bank into Strategic Oil is in order . This is something that the NDC will not do or indeed frown upon, and may even blame KOSMOS for it. However there is no way the NDC will examine itself over STX or even question who STX really are or indeed who are the personalities behind the company and its affiliates.

According to GK Holdings in their website “The Company believes that there is a huge market for its services in the emerging countries like Ghana and Kazakhstan where it is able to provide a quality service at a lower cost ... Recently the company has been awarded several infrastructure projects in Kazakhstan and Ghana.”

This is a company that has become over confident as well as downright cocky even to announce in all their literature that they have been awarded several infrastructure projects in Ghana.

This is a matter of public interest and we therefore call on CHIRAG and Parliament institute an immediate investigation into the circumstances surrounding the deal and ask the Registrar General to lift the veil on STX incorporation so that we can see the Ghanaians fronting the deal and their backgrounds.

Thank You
Hayford Atta Krufi (Chairman)
Nana Yaw Sarpong(Communications Officer)
NPP UK AND IRELAND