STX Furore Not Over, Koreans Yet To Agree Settlement

B. K. Asamoah

The terms of settlement for the amicable resolution of the impasse which continues to stall the government’s STX Housing Project could not be laid before the Accra Commercial Court Thursday.

When the case was called, counsel for STX Korea, Mr Sarfo Buabeng, informed the court that he had forwarded the terms of settlement to Seoul, South Korea, for signatures and he was yet to receive the signed document.

He said although Mr Daniel Juang, a representative of the Korean partners, was in Ghana, he did not have the mandate to sign the document.

“My Lord, it is such an important issue that is beyond the mandate of the representative in Ghana, neither do I have the mandate. I only act on the instructions of my client,” he said.

The latest development compelled the court, presided over by Mrs Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, to give the parties up to December 14, 2011 to file the terms of settlement.

According to the court, failure of the parties to agree and file the terms of settlement would compel the court to either ask that the motion pending before it be moved, withdrawn or be struck out.

At its last sitting on November 15, 2011, the parties informed the court that terms of settlement for an amicable resolution of the impasse had been drawn up for signing and filing at the court.

The terms of settlement are expected to form the basis of the judgement of the court which is hearing the case.

It, therefore, adjourned the case to yesterday for the necessary signing of the document and subsequent filing.

Counsel for the plaintiff, Mr Carl Adongo, expressed the hope that the terms of settlement would have been signed and filed by the next adjourned date.

Although the details of the terms of settlement were not made known, it was gathered that the plaintiff had agreed to pay off all expenses incurred by the Korean partners in the STX deal.

GKA Airports, it was learnt, would also pay off any equity held by the Korean partners, and thereby disengage them from the project.

The suit, filed by GKA Airports Company Limited through its CEO, Mr Bernard Kwabena Asamoah, the man credited with introducing the STX housing project to the government, wanted the court to determine the rightful partner to execute the project.

The plaintiff also sought to sack the Korean partners from the entire project, but the Koreans vowed to resist any attempt to forcibly remove them.

The Koreans were the first to go to court over who owned the company when they sued Mr Asamoah, the Registrar-General and others for allegedly diluting the company’s shares to GKA Airport’s advantage, but the Fast Track High Court, presided over by Justice N.M.C. Abodakpi, adjourned proceedings sine die because the processes to get the case heard were not completed.

Although the President, Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, cut the sod in January, 2011 for the commencement of the project, boardroom wrangling between the Koreans and their Ghanaian partners has stalled the construction of 200,000 housing units in the country at a cost of $10 billion, starting with 30,000 houses for the security services.