Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com
By
William Yaw Owusu
Thursday, April 24, 2014
The Commission of Enquiry investigating the payments
of judgement debts yesterday heard how former Attorney General Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and his deputy Gloria Akufo moved heaven and earth to prevent the payment of huge sums of money to Construction Pioneers (CP).
David Kwabena Ofosu-Dorte, Senior Partner of General
Law Consult now AB & David Law, whose firm was engaged as consultants by
the Attorney General, gave mind-blowing testimony about how Ghana came to owe
Construction Pioneers popularly called CP, so much.
The ‘Commission of Enquiry into the
payment of Judgement Debt and Akin’ under C.I. 79 to investigate the frivolous
and dubious payments of huge monies to undeserving individuals and companies,
was appointed by President John Dramani Mahama after public uproar over the
payments in what has now come to be termed as Judgement Debts (JD).
Notable among them were payments made to
CP (€94 million) and the never-ending case of GH¢51.2million parted to the
self-styled National Democratic Congress (NDC) financier, Alfred Agbesi Woyome.
He told Sole-Commissioner Justice Yaw Apau of the
Court of Appeal that then Attorney General Nana Akufo-Addo and his deputy
Gloria Akufo must be commended for the way and manner they tried their best to
ensure that CP did not shortchange Ghana in the arbitration process.
James
Quarshie Factor
He specifically mentioned Mr. James Quarshie a
director of special duties at the Ministry of Finance who he said frequently
interfered in the CP case saying “he operated outside the AG’s office and manage
to frustrate the process.”
“Ms Gloria Akufo is one minister worth commending.
She went to court on the basis of the fact that the MoU the government had
signed with CP had said that the matters should be held before a court in
Ghana. Secondly, together with Nana Akufo-Addo, they were pursuing parallel
negotiations with CP and that went far.”
“To the best of my recollection, at some point,
settlement was done at a figure that I cannot recall but it was definitely
several times less than I have heard in public was paid. The reason why I say
so was that that settlement included the CP’s admission of the setoffs.”
“Professionally, I think the AG’s office if there
was any job they did well then it is this CP case. They were doing a very good
job but I am aware that James Quarshie made their work almost impossible.”
Genesis
Narrating how the CP debt came about, Mr.
Ofosu-Dorte who has indepth knowledge in construction and engineering laws said
the government engaged CP for the construction of some roads in Accra between
1989 and 1994 but when payment was not being made the construction firm went to
the International Court of Arbitration for redress.
He said the government as a result terminated the
arbitration process and replaced it with an award of contracts for the
construction of Biriwa-Takoradi, Yamoransa-Assin Praso and Akim Oda-Nkawkaw in
1996 for which MoUs were signed by then Ministry of Roads and Transport instead
of the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA).
Biriwa-Takoradi
In the Biriwa-Takoradi road project, the witness
said CP was claiming payment for certificate for accrued interest as at August
31, 2001 at about 40million Deutsche Marks, an additional extended performance
cost of 23million Deutsche Marks, an adjustment in contract rate as well as
variation of the contract regarding the last five kilometer dual carriage way
which they claimed 2.75million Deutsche Marks.
Yamoransa-Assin
Praso
In the Yamoransa-Assin Praso road project, the
witness said CP claimed a default or breach of contract and failure to take
action on its first payment certificate dated March 31, 2001 adding “what CP
did was that as soon as they poured the bitumen and the rest they put in a
certificate and the engineer took no action.”
Akim
Oda-Nkawkaw
On the Akim Oda-Nkawkaw road project, he said CP put
in a claim of default for breach of contract by certain actions leading to
failure to commence work adding “the engineer refused to make a determination
and they went ahead to put in a claim.”
“All the CP contracts fell outside the typical rates
used by the GHA because they were not getting the jobs through competitive
bidding. The jobs were entered into as a result of the 1996 agreement and the
rates were very arbitrary.”
He said while CP was initiating the arbitration
processes, the then new government entered into another contract with the
company for the Obuasi township roads and completed works saying “the
government had issued defects liability certificate so the government had no
business keeping their money.”
No
Bond
He told the commission that “in all the contracts,
CP did not post any bond at all. They simply wrote asking the government for a
waiver and according to them that waiver was received but nobody ever produced
any waiver.”
He said CP at a point had admitted that they owed
Ghana about 44million Deutsche Marks as a result of over payment in the Biriwa
road project but the government never took steps to get the money.
He said at the time of signing the contract with CP,
instead of crafting a proper arbitration clause, there was lazy drafting and
that left the venue undetermined but new the AG was able to convince the ICC to
bring the arbitration to Ghana.
He said by December 2004, they had made a decision
not to renew their contract with the government due to interference especially
from James Quarshie and the final arbitration was done in 2007/2008.
“I singled out Gloria Akufo and Nana Akufo-Addo for
what they were doing. In terms of the technical work, Gloria was changed. Just
when Ambrose Derry was also trying to bring it to a conclusion then there was a
change. The frequent changes tend to affect the work of the AG in defending the
nation.”
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