Statement By The New Patriotic Party On The Woyome Saga

10TH

JANUARY 2012

STATEMENT BY THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY ON THE WOYOME SAGA

The NPP has noted that the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament has

announced that it is about to commence hearings, in matters arising out of the

Report of the Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana (Consolidated

Fund) for the Year Ended 31 December 2010. This includes the payments made

to Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome which has created public outrage. We note that

article 186 of the 1992 Constitution, gives Parliament the exclusive jurisdiction

in matters arising out of the Auditor-General’s Report. We note that the

Minority in Parliament had earlier called for an independent body to be

established by the President to investigate the matter. However, events

subsequent to this call has led us to the irresistible conclusion that a bipartisan body, the Public Accounts Committee is in the best position to

investigate this matter

Firstly, the President in his interaction with senior journalists and editors at

the Castle, Osu, on January 9th 2012 stated categorically that he was not going

to heed to the call to set up the independent enquiry. Secondly, the answer by

the President that he did not authorise the payment of the monies to Woyome

and or did not know anything about the payment has put the President’s

participation in the Woyome Saga in issue. We wish to draw the attention of

the people of Ghana to the fact that recently in Uganda, President Yoweri

Museveni appeared before the Public Accounts Committee of the Ugandan

Parliament in a matter in which the Ugandan Attorney-General and Minister of

Finance had made payments which raised issues similar to the payments made

to Woyome.

Last but not least, we view the invitation by the President to EOCO to intervene

in the matter a smoke screen, charade and a calculated attempt to cover up the

NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY

Headquarters, Private Mail Bag, Accra-North, Ghana

Tel: +233 (0)302 227 737 / 229 030 / 228 104 Fax: +233 (0)302 229 048

Email: nppdcom@gmail.com

NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY

DEVELOPMENT IN FREEDOMinvolvement of the President and his Ministers in this unfortunate unfair. We

wish to point out that, the first person to make this call for EOCO to intervene,

was none other person than Woyome, the main actor in this whole saga. The

petition to EOCO was sent by Benjamin Akyena Brentuo, of the Office of the

President. Also whilst the President claims, as he did in his press interaction,

that he is merely seeking a report from EOCO, EOCO is investigating alleged

serious offences involving fraud in the award and execution of contracts

relating to CAN 2008. This becomes even the more curious, since the AttorneyGeneral, Hon. Betty Mould-Iddrisu who failed to defend the action and agreed

to a consent judgement, when Woyome made his fantastic claims against

government, went back to court herself seeking to set aside the judgment on

account of mistake.

For the above reasons, we as a Party have decided that our officials and

members will not be part of the investigations at EOCO, since this forms part of

a carefully orchestrated ploy by government to cover up. We wish to

emphatically state that, whilst the NPP was in government, Alfred Agbesi

Woyome never entered into any legally enforceable contract with government.

Also, whilst we were in government, we never had any proof that Woyome had

made any sum of monies available, especially the ONE BILLION EUROS, which

forms the basis of his supposed claim for financial engineering services

rendered to government.

We wish to note that Parliament, through its Public Accounts Committee will

scrutinize all the judgment debts contained in the Auditor-General’s Report.

Our members will cooperate fully with the Public Accounts Committee of

Parliament. We call upon the Committee to hold televised public hearings.

Jake O. Obetsebi-Lamptey

(National Chairman)

DEVELOPMENT IN FREEDOM