THE SCAM that surrounded Ghana picking $3.5million debt in late 2001 during an arbitration in London with a Korean firm is far from over.
The Chronicle investigations into Kolon affairs have further revealed that one of the architects and principal witness for the Korean firm, Mr. Patrick Adamah, lied under oath to an Accra High court about his involvement in the registration of the local branch of Kolon.
This paper has traced an oath of affidavit by Adamah, dated March 12, 2003 to the registrar of an Accra High Court in which he denied any knowledge of the registration of the company in Ghana.
He also denied ever using No.91 Community 11, Tema as the offices of Kolon.
"No. 91 Community 11, Tema is not and has never been the registered premises of Kolon (UK) Ltd," Adamah swore to the high court.
"This is a residential house and is not used for commercial purposes. I am, therefore, returning the original copies of the attached writ to you," he told the court.
He said he left the employment of Kolon (UK) in the UK in April 1998, and came to Ghana to pursue his own business. I am NOT an agent of Kolon (UK) Ltd and has no agency contract with Kolon (UK) Ltd, he said, adding that, Kolon (UK) has never had offices or agents based in Ghana.
Adamah had told The Chronicle in an interview that every effort would be made to ensure that Ghana paid the $3.5 million debt to Kolon, despite the question marks about the existence of a genuine contract between the two state institutions, Ministry of Works and Housing and the Department of Feeder Roads and Kolon.
The false affidavit came about when Mensul Ltd, jointly owned by Mr. Kasule Yakubu, the Managing Director of Gbewaa Civil Engineers, local representative of Kolon, during a spare parts deal between his company and Department of Feeder Roads, filed a writ against the Korean firm in an Accra High Court this year.
The writ was to attach Kolon's local accounts for refusing to pay compensation to Mensul for the unwholesome rice the company sold to the Ghanaian firm in 1995.
The Chronicle gathered that after weeks of Adamah evading the bailiffs serving the writ on him, the court officials had no option but to paste the action on the gate of No. 91,Community 11, Tema, a house that was used as the local offices of Kolon by Adamah, when he was given the power of attorney to register the local branch of the company.
Adamah has since denied any involvement in the registration of Kolon branch in Ghana in a two separate interview with The Chronicle.
He described any existence of such documents at the Registrar General's Department as fictitious.
"You see these are some of the fictitious documents I am talking about, I would not be surprised if it is emerging from Kasule, Gbewaa's MD," he told The Chronicle.
"In fact I also heard about my involvement in the registration of Kolon in Ghana branch for the first time with the police,' he said.
When The Chronicle pointed out the existence of such documents at the Registrar General's Department, including the power of attorney signed by Mr. Dae-Hwan Song and Ki-Wook Cha, the former Managing Director and Company Secretary of Kolon, Adamah maintained that the documents were fictitious.
However on September 10,1998 Dae-Hwan Song and Ki-Wook Cha swore an affidavit and gave the powers of attorney to Adamah after he had left the company in April 1998. The aim of the powers of the attorney was to register Ghana's version of Kolon to enable them to open a local account to collect the spare parts money one year after the goods were sold through Gbewaa to Feeder Roads and the Works and Housing Ministry.
This was after Kolon had moved to sideline Gbewaa, its local representative, when it came to light that Mr. Yakubu would use part of the proceeds from the spare parts to defray the unwholesome rice compensation Kolon owed Mensul.
Following the powers of attorney, Adamah, succeeded in registering a local branch of Kolon on November 11,1998 using No. 91 Community 11 as business place of the company in Ghana, incidentally where he used to reside.
The registrar of companies on November 13 wrote to inform Adamah that application for his registration had been completed.
"I refer to the memorandum and articles of Association of the above thus (Kolon UK Ltd) together with the forms Nos.20 and 21 submitted for registration and have to inform you that the documents have been registered in the Register of External Companies and that the registration number of the company is Ext.678."
With the completion of the of the registration, two current accounts were opened with the Barclays Bank High street branch with accounts numbers 2186386 and 1295752 serving as cedis and dollars accounts respectively.
A legal expert who spoke to The Chronicle on the Kolon affairs said: "If this act by Adamah is indeed true it is a clear manifestation that his evidence against Ghana during the arbitration in London for Kolon in late September 2001cannot be said to be credible."
He added, "The Government must take steps to quash the arbitration verdict against the nation. If the key and principal Kolon witness can misconduct himself and lie under oath to our court here what is the guarantee that the same Adamah did not lie to arbitrators when giving his evidence in London?"
The genesis of Kolon affairs was in 1996 when the Ministry of Works and Housing and Ministry of Roads and Transport and Department of Feeder Roads were in search for spare parts for graders and Baukema excavators.
The Chronicle gathered that around that time Mr. Yakubu, whose company used to service the ministry's earth moving equipment, came up with idea that he could arrange with his principals, Kolon UK Ltd to supply the spare parts.
The ministry therefore submitted a list of the parts it needed to Gbewaa for consideration. A few days later Gbewaa tendered a draft contract on behalf its principals, Kolon UK Ltd to the ministries for consideration.
After weeks of scrutiny the ministries agreed to the terms of the contract including the 180 days credit and signed their portion of the deal and delivered it to the local representative of Kolon.
It was expected that Kolon would counter sign its portion and return the ministry's copies. But six months after, nothing was heard from Kolon, until the seventh month when Mr. Yakubu got back to the ministry to tell them that his principals (Kolon), could not sign their portion as expected because the company was seeking clearance or permission from its head quarters in South Korea.
The Chronicle can also report that the $3.5 million debt to Ghana has its root from the selling of unwholesome rice to Mensul Ltd a sister company to Gbewaa, the local representative of Kolon.
Another company in Ghana, which suffered a similar fate at the hands of Kolon as a result unwholesome rice import was Unilever.
After the due process Kolon had no option than to pay compensation to Unilever for the 10,000 metric tons of rice it sold to the company, which turned out to be unwholesome. Kolon however refused to pay Mensul its compensation and in order to avoid the payment of the compensation the Koreans, with the help of Adamah, wrote for the first time, direct to the ministry asking for the payment of the spare parts, claiming that Gbewaa was the company's messenger but not its representative.
The Department of Feeder Roads, after the supply of the parts, made some payments to Gbewaa, for which the company duly notified Kolon.
Following a misunderstanding between Gbewaa and Kolon over the payment of compensation to Mensul, Kolon, demanded full payment for the sale of the spare parts, even though part of the money had been paid to Gbewaa the local representatives of the company.
Insisting however that Gbewaa was not its representative, Kolon sent the matter to an arbitration in London.
In the process Ghana was asked to pay $3.5 million to Kolon.
