A lot have been written about the Woyome and NDC collusion to defraud Ghanaian
taxpayers but still a lot of people still can't figure out how this fraud is all
about and how it was hatched out.I don't claim to be an expert on this issue but I
I want to share with others without any law lexicons and big English to impress
anybody my understanding of what happened. It might take a little bit longer to
explain this as I understand it to be but bear with me.
1.Government and Waterville entered into a memorandum of Understanding(MOU) to do
renovation work at Accra, Kumasi and El wak stadiums with a contract to be signed
if Waterville meet the clause 17 in the contract which Waterville has to meet to
turn the (MOU) into a full contract. What is this clause 17? The clause 17
stipulates that, Waterville has to show that it has the finances to carry out those
projects.
2. Waterville hired Woyome VAMED/POWAPAK company to source for finances on its
Waterville behalf, so Vamed/Powapak became a subcontractor. VAMED/POWAPAK/Woyome
therefore did not eneter into any contract with Ghana government and therefore
cannot sue the government of Ghana, Woyome has admitted to that.
3. Government never signed any contract with Woyome or VAMED/POWAPAK and whatever
Woyome was promised to be paid was between him and Waterville.
4. Since the CAN was a time sensitive project, Waterville was made to understand the
time constraint on the government, and the sooner the project starts, the better so
that any kinks in them can be corrected to have a successful CAN tournament.
5.Woyome, VAMED/POWAPAK was having problems sourcing for loans so Waterville wrote
a letter to the Ministry of Sports seeking permission to start the project by at
least pulling the walls on the said stadiums down and preparing the grounds for
renovation to begin despite the fact that it has not met the financial viability
aspect of what was expected, so that it can meet the time constraints on these
projects.
6. The Government acceded to the Waterville request and Waterville started working
on these stadiums despite the fact that it has not met the clause 17 aspect of the
contract.
7. Ghana Government after waiting for months without Waterville showing any
financial responsibity that it can carry out these projects abrogated the said
CONTRACT(MOU) and asked the Waterville to bill it for work done which will be looked
into and paid.
8.This is where it gets murky as when the government paid Waterville. According to
Mpianim who was the Chief of Staff, he said Waterville was paid all money owed it by
the government but we found out Waterville through their local lawyer, Mr Kwame
Tetteh filed a suit seeking payment from the government.
9. According to lawyer Tetteh,Waterville settled its contract with Woyome or paid
him what he was due in November 2006.
10. later Lawyer Tetteh found out Wayome has filed a suit against Ghana government
demanding some payments, so lawyer Tetteh wrote a letter to Mills administration in
September 24, 2009 and November 20, 2009 cautioning the Mills Administration not to
entertain the claims then being made on the Government of Ghana(GoG) by Mr. Alfred
Agbesi Woyome on the basis that "Mr. Woyome`s emergence in the matter is belated and
with no locus standi...".Lawyer Tetteh Cautioned Gov’t Against Woyome`s Claim And
Revealed Waterville Had Already Paid Him For His Services After Mutual Termination
of Agreement In Nov. 2006!
11. This was the time Lawyer Tetteh and Waterville were trying to get the government
of Ghana to pay them Certified Claims :9,634,240.16 Euros ; Lost
Profits:11,935,706.55 Euros and Interest from date of abrogation of contract to
present date at Euribor (as per attached); 2,791,070.52"; thus bringing the total
claim Waterville was making on the Government of Ghana to 24,361,016.60 Euros.
12. It is believed the Mills administration settled the Waterville suit for Euro
21,880,256.59."Our on-going investigations have also indicated that the Mills
Administration has settled the claims of Waterville." According to Lawyer Tetteh.
13. Now folks, if Waterville had paid Woyome in 2006 and Mills administration has
settled the waterville in 2010, where did this Woyome suit for 35 million dollars
come from?
14. Folks, remember that earlier Waterville through their Attorney Lawyer Kwame
Tetteh has warned the Mills administration that Woyome has no right to sue the
government of Ghana but somewhere along the line, Woyome and Waterville settled
their differences and wrote a letter to Mills administration that they worked with
Mr Woyome on the contract with Ghana. Since Lawyer Kwame Tetteh has ealier written
on behalf of the Waterville warning the government that Woyome has no claim against
the government, Waterville dropped Lawyer Kwame Tetteh and hired a new Lawyer.
15. Waterville then in a dramatic twist of events, wrote a letter dated April 20,
2010 to the Attorney-General, indicating that “Waterville and M-Powapak worked
together with Mr. Alfred Woyome when VAMED ENGINEERING transferred their right for
the projects in Ghana, as per their letter dated 1st July 2005, to Waterville that
replied same day".
16. What is interesting is that, earlier on, Woyome has argued to the government
that Waterville demand or suit against the government is illegitimate."Mr. Tetteh
argued that Mr. Woyome`s allegation that Waterville`s claim was illegitimate clearly
betrayed his (Woyome`s) limited knowledge and involvement in the construction works,
and importantly, his motive to discredit the legitimate claim of Waterville to
payment of pre-financed works.
17. I hope you folks have followed the sequence of events up to this point.
Waterville has told the government that it has paid Woyome and his companies in 2006
and therefore Woyome has no legitimate suit against the government.
18.Woyome too at this time told the government that; Waterville suit against the
government is illegitimate.
19. Whatever collusion Woyome and Waterville entered into, all of a sudden Woyome
and Waterville has become one suing the government. That should not have been
anything unusual except that, Waterville who has a contract with Woyome has told
Ghana government that it has paid Woyome what it owes him in 2006 and NDC has
already paid Waterville almost 22 million Euros, so what is this tag team suit from
Woyome and Waterville for?
20. What did your Mills government do when the new suit from Woyome and his partner
Waterville was dropped on its lap? If somebody sue you, would you not first demand
to see what contract you have with that person or will your Lawyer not first demand
to see the said contract between you and the Plaintiff? That is what we expected our
government to demand from Woyome what contract he has with the government, but the
Perry Masons' at the A-G office immediately said the government has no defense to
the Woyome suit.
21.Woyome then started to bargain with the government which I believe was cordial
with Star beer, Gulder, Wine and fine Whisky flowing like water for this 'armed
robbery' called suit. Believe me, these 'chinchinga' lovers slaughtered a cow and
Chinchinga was in abundance. After a good laugh and having taken Ghanaians to the
cleaners settled for 41 million new Ghana cedis. Somewhere along the line, the only
lady in the room who was the Attorney General at that time was drunk soo much she
ended up signing one more check for 17 million Ghana new cedis bringing the loot to
GHc58 million($35million) which Woyome took and immediately dashed half of it to NDC
to build their Party headquarters.
22. Mr Woyome then immediately travelled to Austria and ended up in USA where I
believe most of the said money have been stashed away. The barn has been opened and
the horse is out so closing it might not do us any good. We just have to make sure
Woyome will never have a chance to enjoy that loot.
23. Mr. Mpiani has, in the wake of the public uproar over the Woyome saga, publicly
reiterated the position he articulated in his October 24, 2008 letter to Waterville;
insisting that the latter were paid their due before the exit from office of the
Kufuor Administration. In the case of Mr. Woyome, Mr. Mpiani vehemently denies that
Government ever signed any contract with him and has therefore questioned the
legitimacy of his claim and the over GH¢58 million made to him by the Mills
Administration as judgement debt.
24 ."Friends Ghanaian countrymen", let's demand from Mills administration to publish
all settlements debts it has paid on our behalf because if Waterville and Woyome
have been paid twice or three times, who know how many others have been paid monies
they did not deserve? Can Mills tell us how much it paid one Hodai Okai or whatever
his name is whose employment at immigration or Customs was terminated due to some
drug cases? I know they paid him off as settlement debt, can the government tell us
how much was paid to this guy?
25, Rawlings 'boomed' during 31st celebration of the "armed robbery" he called a
revolution that, his 5 million dollars debt settlement has not been paid and that is
something to be looked into since his case was settled earlier than Woyome, why is
it that the government has not paid our for life welfare King Rawlings who intends
to live on poor Ghanaians for the rest of his life his 5 million dollars so that we
can have our peace?
26. The government has intimated that, it has paid GHc642 million since it came to
power in Jan. 2009. Initially we were made to believe that, the Kuffour
administration left GHc279 million settlement debts when the Woyome story first
came up, how did it get to GHc642 million? We need answers from this administration.
Don't let anybody tell me I live outside Ghana and don't pay taxes because I pay
more taxes in Ghana than most people who live in Ghana and I demand to know what my
taxes are being used for.
Justice Sarpong
Houston, Texas
