$64m Africa Integras Project In Court

An alumnus of the University of Ghana, Samuel Andrews, has filed a suit against the University of Ghana, the Attorney General, the Public Procurement Authority, Construction Company, Africa Integras, and former Vice-Chancellor Prof. Ernest Aryeetey, over the school's 64 million dollar contract with the construction company.

The contract was for building academic and residential facilities for the school.

According to Lawyer of the plaintiff, Kwaku Paintsil, the defendants must be brought to book if they knew the financial loss the country was to suffer at the time the contract was signed.

“All the processes including the execution of that agreement violated our laws, that agreement was likely to affect the consolidated fund if the University of Ghana defaults in the obligation they have undertaken under the agreement,” he said.

The suit comes shortly after the management of the University debunked reports that it has incurred a $160m judgement debt following a decision by a UK arbitrator.

The management said any such statement was untrue and intended to create panic among the University's stakeholders.

In the statement issued on August 14, 2018, the management said the story was an attempt to force the University to accept a position on the controversial $64m Africa Integras project that was detrimental to the interest of the University.

Reports that made rounds on social media two weeks ago said the University of Ghana had been slapped with a $160m judgement debt over a decision to cancel a $64m contract with Africa Integras.

Education Minister, Matthew Opoku Prempeh, had said that the University of Ghana risk being privatized if it fails to meet its obligations in the agreement.

The Minister, who said this in an interview with Peace FM's Kwame Sefa Kayi indicated that the University under the previous government, entered into a Public Private Partnership (PPP) agreement with Africa Integras to invest US$64 million in the construction of 1,000 new students' hostel beds for undergraduate and post-graduate students at the Legon campus.