|
|
EOCO Interim Report, Is Ghana ruled by
Illiterates?
By Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK
I have had the opportunity of downloading and reading the
sixteen-page Interim Report of the Economic and Organised
Crime Office (EOCO), on the Woyomegate. I must apologise to
readers for the title of this article that may appear to be
abusive and insulting. I was very saddened by the contents of
the report, especially how the scarce resources of the country
are just being wasted by the very leaders who are supposed to
ensure the judicious application of such resources. The
incompetency, negligence and abrogation of duty by ministers
and civil servants are simply unbelievable.
How on earth a single individual managed to claim such huge
sum of money from the state without any iota proof that he is
entitled to them made me sick. I am not a lawyer but with my
knowledge in UK Employment Law and International Humanitarian
Law, I am baffled that the Attorney General and Minister at
the time who is a qualified lawyer could not determine that
Woyome had no business to make a claim. The Attorney General
should have caused the arrest of Mr Woyome when he made his
claim against the State. Why?
In page zero of the EOCO report, the advertisement put out by
the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports for Expression of
Interest for the “Provision of Consulting, Contracting and
Financial Services for CAN 2008 Ghana” which appeared in the
Daily Graphic of January 6 2005 clearly specified requests
from “qualified firms and joint ventures” Woyome is not a firm
neither is he a joint venture, let alone qualified.
Again, on page one of the same report, the list of twelve
organisations that were shortlisted to put in bids for
consideration did not include any firm or joint venture by the
name, Wyome. The eight organisations that finally put in bids
for consideration (as listed in pages one and two of the
report also did not include a firm or a joint venture with the
same name, Woyome and last but not the least, the six
organisations who were finally selected to put in final bids
(as listed on pages two and three) did not include the name,
Woyome. So on what basis did Woyme sue the state is a mystery?
These should have been the basis for the state to have
rejected Woyome’s claim from day one. From the available
information in the report, it is abundantly clear that Woyome
either worked for Waterville or was a representative of
Waterville that had a legitimate claim against the state for
wrongful termination of award of contract and work carried out
by them under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) by the
Ministry of Sports.
It is also inexplicable how Waterville rightly put in a claim
against the state for wrongful termination of award of
contract and breach of the earlier MOU and was paid
€11,935,706.55 out of a total claim of €21,569,946.71 during
the NPP administration and yet made a second claim for
€25,000,000 under NDC administration that was fully paid,
instead of the state paying the outstanding amount of
€9,634.240.16 plus interest. What was the basis of
Waterville’s second claim and why did the state not challenge
it since they had made a claim on the same matter under the
previous government as contained in page five of the report?
It appears that Waterville realised that the new government
officials were novices and they could easily make another
claim so they tried their luck and they were successful. The
state should have gone back to study the first claim
Waterville made under the previous administration to find out
what the claim was for. I suspect if the state had done that,
officials would have realised that Waterville’s claim was not
different from the earlier claim and therefore had no legal
basis. This could also suggest that, some state officials
might have colluded with Waterville to make a second claim.
It is again ironic that an official from the Ministry of
Finance and Economic Planning advised the Attorney General and
Minister for Justice to pay the Woyome claim. What were the
lawyers and experts at the Attorney General’s Department for?
It is strange that after the state official who advised the
payment to Woyome had confirmed that though €1,106,470,587 was
arranged by Waterville but only €746,117,646 was meant for the
CAN projects, he went ahead and recommended payment of 2% on
the total sum and not the part meant for the projects in
Ghana. So instead of €1,282.235.30 Ghana ended up paying
€22,129,411.74 as contained in page ten of the report.
It appears there was no one within the AG’s Department or
Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning who took the
responsibility to ensure that the state got value for money.
Could this state official have been paid for making this
strange recommendation?
As contained in pages ten and eleven, I cannot imagine that a
senior civil servant in the Ministry of Finance and Economic
Planning could write and sign a letter to the AG to advise the
payment of a such an important claim against the state without
the knowledge of the Minister or his Deputies. What is really
happening in Ghana and who is in control, the politicians or
civil servants? The fact is, it’s free for all and no one is
actually in control.
I am shocked and amazed by EOCO stating in page twelve of the
report that His Excellency, the President intervened on two
occasions to stop the payments to Woyome because EOCO did not
mention the source of this information in their report. This
unsupported intervention by the President is not only bizarre
but also makes the President weak and appear not to be in
control of his appointees. Again, because the President was on
record to have said that he knew nothing about the payments.
What was EOCO’s intention for including this in the report?
I do not understand why NPP boycotted EOCO. It’s clear from
the report that the NPP administration did not follow the
Public Procurement Act by awarding a contract to a Chinese
company that was handpicked by Ex-President without going
through the tender process as required by law. It is also
clear that NPP government illegally terminated contract or MOU
with Waterville. However, Waterville was paid compensation,
though there was an outstanding amount as at the time
administration left office. What was NPP afraid of? Were they
embarrassed by breaking the law or what?
My conclusion after reading the EOCO report is that neither
the President nor his two appointees who were responsible for
the Woyomegate were control of what was happening in their
respective ministries. They behaved as illiterates on this
matter leading to gargantuan financial loss to the state.
Woyome had no business with the state and had no legal basis
to claim compensation against the state let alone be paid. The
two civil servants were either part of Woyome’s grand scheme
or were saboteurs. Woyome could not have acted alone. At worst
he was assisted by negligence or connivance by all who were
involved. In fact, some actions may be sabotage. The President
knew about the payment but was not in control
I recommend the following: Woyome should be arrested and
charged for fraud, bribery and influencing state officials;
Woyome should refund all the money he has received with
interest; Both the then AG and the Finance Minister should be
charged for causing financial loss to the state; The second
claim by Waterville could be illegal and should be
investigated for further action by the state, since it could
be double claim. If established that it was double claim, the
state should charge them for fraud and recover the amount with
interest. The two civil servants should be investigated and
charged for gross misconduct, accepting bribe and causing
financial loss to the state; The President and his ministers
should take responsibilities; Politicians should exercise
proper oversight over civil servants to avoid sabotage;
This is not good for NDC because the two ministers behave as
if they cannot read and write. There were documentary evidence
to stop Woyome from duping the state, yet they failed to read
and act on them. What a sad day for Ghana?
Kofi Ata, Cambridge, UK
|
