Gov't officials ‘connived with Woyome’ in the GHC35m deal – OccupyGhana

OccupyGhana says its evaluation of some documents on the contract government signed with Alfred Agbesi Woyome has revealed government officials either connived with the businessman to defraud the state of millions or were just naïve.

The pressure group last Thursday brought to light a Framework Agreement between the government and Anator Holding Company Limited owned by Mr Woyome.

Per the contract, OccupyGhana claims Woyome’s company is to use Ghana’s goodwill to raise an initial financing of US$8.5M from banks around the world just for feasibility studies.

Dated December 21, 2015, Anator Holding per the contract is to “develop deep seaports (including) industrial parks and green townships” in Ghana. A statement issued by the group November 30 said upon a review of documents generated by Mr Woyome after the signing of the agreement, “reveals either shocking naiveté or blatant wrongs on the part of government officials in this matter.

“OccupyGhana is convinced beyond any doubt that this was just another prank in an elaborate scam that Woyome was preparing, with the connivance or shocking naïveté of government officials, to defraud Ghana (and others) of millions, perhaps billions.

Read the full statement below

OCCUPYGHANA® PRESS STATEMENT

OccupyGhana® Reveals More On Woyome Deal With Government

OccupyGhana says that its continued review of the documents generated by Woyome after the illegal Framework Agreement with the government reveals either shocking naiveté or blatant wrongs on the part of government officials in this matter.

For the purpose of this Statement, we have reviewed the following documents: Terms of Reference prepared by Anator Holding with respect to an alleged Cobalt-60 and Tissue Culture Facility Letter dated 1st February 2016 from Albert Essamuah Associated Limited (Anator’s consultants) to the Director-General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission, Email correspondence between one Nana Addo and on Stephen R. Tape of Nordion dated 22nd January 2016, And online printout of an order form for an unspecified Nordion product, Email from F. Kwadwo Addo of BIC Ghana to Alfred Woyome, dated 2ndAugust 2005, Draft Minutes of a meeting held with GAEC officials dated 12th July 2005, Letter of Support from Professor Kasim Kassanga (then Minister for Environment and Science) to the Minister of Finance dated 28th October 2004. Just by way of a reminder, the government signed a Framework Agreement with Woyome on 21st December 2015.

We have stated that that agreement was illegal, at least for material non-disclosure because it failed to reveal some dodgy commitment by the government to acquire a 24% stake in a non-existent “joint venture,” only for the government and Woyome to turn around and try to offload that “stake holding” to SSNIT.

Woyome, from what we have gathered from these documents and his history, hides behind various companies and entities primarily to confuse government officials and get them to do his bidding. And he is doing that right now. Government officials are either following him blindly and unwittingly, or they are in on another grand scheme that can only cost government (and the people of Ghana) money.

We note that soon after the execution of the Framework Agreement, Woyome’s consultants began to expand the scope of the alleged Special Economic Zone in ways not anticipated by the Agreement, and to commit government to that expansion. Key in this fraudulent scheme is a proposal to build a so-called “Cobalt-60 Culture Facility and Warehouse.”

Nowhere in the Framework Agreement is this Facility even mentioned; yet Woyome and his consultants started marketing this as part of the Framework Agreement. The 1st February 2016 letter from Woyome’s consultants, Albert Essamuah Associates Limited to the Director-General of the Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (“GAEC”), falsely states that “Now the Government of Ghana has entered into a Private Public Partnership Agreement with Anator Holding Company Limited (AHCL) for AHCL to establish a project in a Special Economic Zone, which includes the establishment of the Cobalt 60/Tissue Culture Facilities and Warehouses.”

On the basis of this falsehood Woyome purported to appoint the GAEC as consultants to this project. He circulated copies of this letter to the Chief of Staff and relevant Ministers, among others. But attached to this false letter were what purported to be: Terms of Reference, A Letter and General Contract Form from Nordion of Canada, Minutes of Meetings with GAEC, and (iv) a Letter of Support for a Loan from the Minister of Environment and Science to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. The Terms of Reference contains several material falsehoods.

For instance, it says Anator had executed an MOU “with the Government of Ghana through the Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority.” That was materially false; while the government was clearly participating with Woyome in this grand design, the MOU is with GPHA alone. Then it speaks of establishing deep-sea ports, industrial parks, green townships and Urban Renewal Project at Kablevu, Takoradi and Tokpo.

That was also materially false; Woyome and his company did not own any lands in those destinations and he was then putting pressure on the government to front the compulsory acquisition of lands in those areas for him. We have seen letters dating from 22nd December 2015, the day after the Framework Agreement was signed, stating the compulsory acquisition process.

Also, the document says the President “shall declare the Special Economic Zone as a new port and Industrial Park.” That was also apparently false; there is no obligation upon the President to do any such thing under the Framework Agreement.

Alternatively, whoever wrote the document has such a close and direct relationship with the President of the Republic of Ghana that they could confidently speak of the President’s stance in relation to the project without the need for his stance to be confirmed in the Framework Agreement.

Further, what is presented as a “Letter and General Contract Form from Nordion, Canada” is nothing but a half-page email enquiry about Nordion’s products from one of Woyome’s surrogates called Nana Addo, what is at best a refusal from Nordion to deal with him (stating a preference to deal with end-users), and a standard order form printed from Nordion’s website.

Nordion is a Canadian health science organization that exports gamma technologies and medical isotopes. The alleged minutes of meetings with GAEC and Letter of Support are even more scandalous. That meeting, held in 2005, was not with Anator at all and had nothing to do with any current matter.

The meeting related to the previous expansion of the CAN 2008 Stadium construction plans to include this so-called Cobalt-60 plant, and which was scrapped over a decade ago. Also, the meeting was held between GAEC officials and representatives of Waterville, Micheletti & Co., Building Industry Consultants and Woyome as “Austrian Consulate.”

Further, the alleged Letter of Support is dated 28th October 2004 and related to a loan to be “processed by Vamed Engineering.” These are the self-same companies which are notorious for having either been used or been involved in the original Woyome scandal concerning the expansion of the national stadium. What is worse, Anator Holding Company Limited was only incorporated in 2006 (according to information on its website, and information at the Registrar-General’s Department suggests it was probably reincorporated in 2014), and was therefore not even in existence when these meetings were held and letter written.

In this regard, we must refer to Anator’s undated Press Release, circulating on 29 November 2016, in response to our exposés, which claims falsely that “as far back as 2002, Anator Holding Company Limited led a team of seasoned local and international consultants to think through setting up Industrialized Green Towns in every District of our dear Country”. That statement is clearly false.

Anator did not exist in 2002, and this claim is further evidence of the falsehoods that underlie this latest entire Woyome scheme. OccupyGhana is convinced beyond any doubt that this was just another prank in an elaborate scam that Woyome was preparing, with the connivance or shocking naïveté of government officials, to defraud Ghana (and others) of millions, perhaps billions. His attempt to throw dust in the eyes of the Ghanaian people will not succeed.

Yours, for God and Country,