WOYOME TO STRIKE BACK …As Duffour Explains Stance

The ramifications of the Supreme Court ruling on the €47 million paid as judgment debt to Waterville Holdings Ltd. and other judgment debts paid by the state in at least the last five years are becoming a subject of keen interest to many Ghanaians.

The Supreme Court on Friday, 14 June, 2012, ordered Waterville Holdings Ltd. to return to the state the €47 million it claimed as judgment Debt in 2009.

Since then, all attention has turned to Business man Alfred Agbesi Woyome, who received GH¢51million from the state in judgment debt.

Information reaching The Chronicle indicates that Mr. Woyome is girding his loins to fight his case to the hilt.

Very reliable sources close to the multi-million benefactor say Mr. Woyome will be setting the records straight tomorrow to calm the nerves of his many benefactors and friends who have become seemingly uncomfortable, following the turn of events at the Supreme Court last Friday, in the case brought before it by Mr. 'Citizen Vigilante', Martin Amidu.

Sources say Mr. Woyome has been waiting for the opportune time to put all controversies surrounding the issue to rest.

Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Martin Amidu, who had been on a solitary  mission to reclaim all wrongfully paid judgment debts  by bungling state officials, had argued   that neither Waterville nor businessman Alfred Agbesie Woyome had a valid contract with the state to warrant those huge payments. The Supreme Court largely accepted his submissions.

In the opinion of the Executive Director of the Danquah Institute, Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the reliefs granted the former AG could have serious implications for the nation's business activities with the international community.

'What this case has done is to basically frighten international businesses when it comes to Ghana,' he said on Joy FM's news analysis programme, Newsfile, on Saturday.

Mr. Amidu received the sack as Attorney-General under strange circumstances for his stance on the issues pertaining to the payment of the judgment debts.

In  his capacity as citizen vigilante, Mr. Amidu went to the Supreme Court  and sought the   reliefs, part of which included a declaration that the second defendant (Waterville), in making their claims against the Government had no legitimate contract because the agreement had not been approved by Parliament and was inconsistent with the law of the land.

Mr. Amidu also held that the court should make a declaration that Mr. Woyome, together with Austro Invest Management, in making their claims against the Government had no legitimate contract.

The Supreme Court, however, stayed a verdict on the issue to do with the payment to Woyome because that was before the High Court.

In March, last year, management of Waterville Holdings (BVI), at a press conference held at the International Press Centre in Accra, gave what to them were tangible reasons why they were entitled to the judgment debt claims against the state.

Mr. Andre Orlandi, Managing Director of Waterville explained what he termed as the 'full facts'.

According to him, 'Waterville, through an open, fair and international bidding process, and in compliance with Ghana's public procurement law, won a contract to construct two (2) new stadia and to  rehabilitate two (2) more. The construction of a third stadium was added to the scope.'

Additionally, 'In spite of Waterville being given approval for the award of all five stadia, the government decided to award two out of the five stadia already awarded to Waterville to Shanghai Construction (Group) General Corporation.

'The procurement process for the two (2) stadia awarded to Shanghai Construction (Group) General Corporation was not done in compliance with Ghana's Public Procurement Law,' Waterville claimed.

'On the strength of MoUs signed with the government in November 2005, and subsequent contracts signed on 26 th April, 2006, and given the very tight time frames to complete the stadia in time for the CAN 2008 football games, Waterville proceeded to pre-finance and start the rehabilitation of the three stadia.'

He said after the majority of the procurement process of materials and equipment were completed and substantial progress made, the government decided to cancel its contract obligations with Waterville on August 2006.

'As a consequence of expenditure already made by Waterville at the time of the government's cancellation of the contract, Waterville made an immediate claim for reimbursement of the amounts it had already spent towards its execution of the contract.

'It has to be noted that the Government's Consultant verified and certified the value of works provided by Waterville to be a total of Euros 21,569,946.71,' said Mr. Orlandi.

He emphasized, however, that Mr. Alfred Woyome separately and independent of Waterville, made a claim against the government that Waterville had no role or interest in Mr. Woyome's claim.

Meanwhile, The Chronicle has learnt that former Finance Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor queried the basis for the huge claims on the state by Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome and  penned an epistle to the then Attorney-General, Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu, quizzing her on the legitimacy of the claims. He also asked her to adduce concrete reasons why the huge money ought to be paid from the already depleted state coffers.

On April 12, 2010, on the receipt of AGs memo asking for the huge payment to Mr. Woyome, Dr. Duffuor wrote thus: 'Our Accounts Office has raised a query on the supporting documentation of the claim.

'For audit purposes, they require clarity and evidence on whether the claim is being made by the consortium that won the bid to conduct the financial engineering led by Woyome jointly or separately.'

The letter copied to his deputy, Acting  Chief Director and Director of Legal, all at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, asked Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu to: 'Kindly advice on the implication of the Agreement and also provide us with any further documentation that substantiates Mr. Woyome's claims.'

The Chronicle has further learned that there was no response to this enquiry. Rather, the Attorney-General's Department presented the Ministry of Finance with  a copy of the ruling of an Accra High Court on the 'Consent Judgment of the two parties, which was interpreted as an urgent need to pay Mr. Woyome before interest on the debt took the issue beyond the finances of the Government of Ghana.

Below is the full text of Dr. Duffuor's letter to the Attorney-General.