Waterville's contract documents were forged – lawyer suspects
Lawyer Augustine Obuor, formerly of the Attorney General's Department, is challenging the police to investigate the “fraudulent” contract between the government of Ghana and Waterville Holdings Limited.
He suspects that since the contract has been declared illegal by the Supreme Court, documents covering the contract could have been forged.
Waterville had maintained that it won an open bid and was consequently awarded a contract to rehabilitate the Accra and Kumasi stadia and construct three new ones in 2006 in Ghana's preparation to host the 2008 African Cup of Nations.
But the Supreme Court last week ruled in favour of Mr. Martin Amidu, who took the contract to court, ordering Waterville to pay back to the state an excess of 40 million euros it received from the Kufuor administration illegally.
The court Friday held that the payments involved contracts that required parliamentary approval, a process it said was side-stepped and therefore rendered the contract unconstitutional.
Meanwhile, former Attorney-General Martin Amidu has challenged claims by the A-G's Department that it helped him in his fight to retrieve the money that was wrongly paid to Waterville Holdings Ltd.
But Mr Augustine Obuor told Joy News the exchanges between the A-G's Department and Mr Martin Amidu is “irrelevant” at the moment.
“The most important thing is that politicians must take care of state resources. And if the money was wrongly paid then the police must come in…it means there has been some fraud which led to the payment of the money.”
He is particularly interested in investigations into “what caused the fraudulent contract” that led to the payment of that huge sum of money to Waterville.
He said the landmark ruling by the Supreme Court “means some documents were forged [in awarding the contract]. And who forged them; that is the job of the police.”
Nevertheless, he said Mr Amidu, the anticorruption crusader, deserves to be hailed, especially by learned lawyers.
He also charged the Attorney General's Department not to rest on its oars but to ensure that the money is paid back if it really supported Martin Amidu.