Why NPP, Baako Must
Shut UP
For lack of knowledge, the wise say, people perish: And based on this, The Informer, per its credible investigations into the CAN 2008 judgment debt paid Consul Alfred Agbesi Woyome, demands that members of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) and their media collaborators, such as Mr. Abdul Malik Kwaku Baako, the Editor-In-Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper, either get educated on the matter at stake or should forever hold their peace.
Plunged in complete ignorance, the NPP led by its communications machinery in an attempt to score cheap political points, and in fruitless effort to divert attention with regards to how the CAN 2008 judgment debt arose, has decided to saturate the airwaves with tangible lies and peddling of falsehood, just to create the impression as if the former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mrs. Betty Mould Iddrisu, upon whose advice the money was paid as a result of the court ruling, has done the unthinkable.
Obviously ill-informed as to how the said judgment debt cropped up, the NPP, since day one of the issue, has tried very hard via series of press conferences to force plain lies unto the general public, with its Minority Leader, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu leading the crusade of discrediting the Professor Mills led-National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, as the heap insults on the President.
Creating a rather faint idea which they shout from the rooftop with claims that the NDC government has conspired to dupe the country since Waterville and for that matter Consul Alfred Woyome had no agreement with the Government of Ghana (GOG), plausible investigations conducted by this paper reveal otherwise.
Exposing the NPP as well as Mr. Malik Kwaku Baako, who has volunteered to unwisely do the NPP’s bidding in the CAN 2008 judgment debt through insincerity, document currently in this paper’s possession explicitly explains why ex-President Kufuor should be hauled before court to elucidate why he abrogated the contract that his government at the time entered into, with Waterville/Vamed Engineering GmbH & Co. KG, of which Consul Alfred Agbesi Woyome is a partner.
Against media reports and vile propaganda that the monies paid the beneficiaries as result of the judgment debt, Honourable Kwaku Agyeman-Manu, former Deputy Minister of Finance, on 4th May, 2005 wrote to three (3) international financial institutions, Raiffeisen Zentral Bank, Osterreich AG, Bank Austria Creditanstalt AG and Exim Bank, Washington, D.C. , to introduce Mr. Alfred Woyome and Vamed Engineering GmbH & Co. KG as agents of the State about a concessional loan for the attached projects (rehabilitation of the stadia) as proposed by the aforementioned company.
Indeed, the then Deputy Minister of Finance, wrote to demand that Vamed Engineering GmbH & Co. KG. and Mr. Alfred Woyome, who the NPP claims has no contract with the Government of Ghana (GOG) be assisted to conclude the loan deal and a term sheet presented to the Ministry for consideration.
The introductory letter became necessary after the Sub Committee on Finance based on the set down criteria recommended the proposal as presented by Alfred Woyome-led Waterville/Vamed Engineering, whose bid was eventually approved by the Central Tender Board (CTB) established under the Public Procurement Act, 2004.
The Minority in Parliament has questioned the existence of a contract between Government and Waterville and or Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome. Government at that time certainly had legal relations with Alfred Woyome as evidenced by his introduction to Financial institutions to secure loans on behalf of Government.
But most importantly, by section 65 of the Public Procurement Act, 2003, once the CTRB approves a winning tender proposal evaluated by a procurement entity, the procurement body, in this case the Ministry in question at the time, is unconditionally obliged to issue a contract to the winning bid and under subsection 4 of section 65, both the procurement entity and the winning bidder are precluded from acting in a manner as to prevent the performance or coming into force of the contractor and this provision is what the NPP and Malik Kwaku Baako were ignorant of.
Following the inability of the NPP to read and understand, the concluding part of the Kwaku Agyeman-Manu’s document indicating that the Government of Ghana does not take any responsibility, legal or otherwise, for any deal; contractual or otherwise entered into by Mr. Alfred Woyome, Vamed Engineering GmbH & Co. KG. is what the NPP and the likes of Baako are holding on to say that the monies paid the beneficiaries were illegal.
Whether or not there is a contract, therefore, does not lie in the estimation of Mr. Yaw Osafo-Marfo, the Minority, or any other person. A contract was established by the operation of the Public Procurement Act, 2003.
Why Osafo -Marfo purported to abrogate the procurement process after the approval of the CTRB remains a mystery, though, but we know from page 3 of his own memo to cabinet that former President Kufuor at the time, was said to have strongly pushed the idea to consider the proposal from a Chinese firm which did not in any way participate in the international competitive tendering process that took place at the time.
In fact; from our in-depth investigations, it came to light that funding was secured by the Woyome-led consortium on behalf of GOG. Woyome made a presentation on behalf of the consortium before the Evaluation Committee, spelling out the details of the funding proposals.
The consortium secured a total of €1.1 billion with a grant element of 36.97% and this was what Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu and NPP poodle Kwaku bandied about that the money paid Waterville and Consul Alfred Woyome was an act of conspiracy to dupe the state.
The Informer is not only saddened by comments from Malik Baako and his paymasters, but their continous attempt to play down on the integrity of the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO), with their ‘no confidence’ vile propaganda against the EOCO; for this we must pity them for not taking the pain to know much about the CAN 2008 judgment paid the beneficiaries before making all the ugly noises.
As indicated in our earlier publications, we have the facts and will do justice to the matter in order to expose the NPP and the discredited-Kwaku of his yellow journalism, in our subsequent publications.
