Confusion Over Waterville, Isofoton Cash

The Attorney General�s Department (AG) is caught in a state of confusion on how to retrieve the multi-million judgment debt wrongfully paid to Spanish company Isofoton and Waterville Holdings owned by Italian-born real estate mogul Don Ernesto Taricone. Since June 2013 when the Ghanaian Supreme Court favoured a suit filed by former Attorney General, Martin A.B.K. Amidu, ordering the companies to cough up the money amounting to over �47million �fraudulently� paid to them, the AG has admitted that it has not been able to serve Isofoton the court�s order. Waterville sought a stay of execution at the Accra High Court in a bid to have the matter arbitrated in London, but the case has been adjourned indefinitely. Isofoton has been ordered to refund $325,472 to the government and the failure to serve Isofoton has forced the AG to device desperate measures, including a recently obtained permission to use other avenues like public announcements. The Deputy AG, Dr. Dominic Ayine disclosed this in an interview on Joy FM�s �Newsfile� programme on Saturday. According to him, Anane Agyei-Forson, the local agent of Isofoton has been avoiding service of the court order and may have ceased to be the bona fide agent for Isofoton. But in a sharp rebuttal, Anane Agyei-Forson called into the programme saying the information Dr. Ayine was giving was �not true�. �They [the AG�s Department] know where I am,� the Isofoton representative countered. �If they are looking for me and they cannot find me that doesn�t mean that I have been avoiding service. I am in Accra here,� he stated. According to the AG�s Department, the summons and statement of claims would be served on the affected people and organisations by substituted service through publications in the newspapers, after which Mr. Agyei-Forson would be deemed to have been duly served. After the publication, Isofoton would have eight days within which to file a defence, stated sources at the AG. If the company fails to file a defence within the eight days, the AG would file an application for summary judgment which, when granted, would be used as a basis to force Isofoton to pay the money. Waterville Holdings, a construction firm, was paid �47million after it argued with the former Attorney General, Betty Mould Iddrisu, that a valid contract it entered into in 2006 for the construction of stadia for the African Cup of Nations played in Ghana in 2008 was illegally abrogated. Isofoton also claimed their contract to provide irrigation materials to the ministry of Agric was illegally abrogated and demanded an amount of $1.2million, out of which over $300,000 was paid to it. However, Martin Amidu, also known as the Citizen Vigilante, smelt a rat in the manner in which the judgment debt was doled out to the companies, forcing him to proceed to court to challenge the claims and demanded that the monies be refunded to the state. The Supreme Court presided over by Professor Justice Samuel Kofi Date-Bah upheld his arguments and ruled in his favour.