Did A-G Disregard Court Order By Asking State To Pay Woyome GHC42m Instead Of GHC17m?

There is empirical evidence to show that contrary to a court order that the state should pay NDC stalwart and businessman, Alfred Woyome an amount of GHC17 million, the Attorney-General rather instructed the state to pay Mr Woyome, GHC42 million.

Court documents produced on Friday by Randy Abbey, host of Metro TV’s “Good Morning Ghana” programme, indicate that the A-G might have disregarded the court order.

Mr Woyome, a businessman, financial engineer and a former Deputy Consul of Austria, brought a case against the state on April 19, 2011, claiming he was wrongfully denied a contract to build stadia for the Ghana 2008 tournament and in lieu of that claimed GHC51,283,480.59 in damages.

The NDC guru who reportedly contributed extremely generously at a recent fund-raising ceremony for the party and also funded some officials of the NDC to witness the 2010 World Cup in South Africa claims he won the huge amount squarely, because the Kufuor administration ditched him after winning the contract to execute a job in connection with the renovation of the two leading stadia in the country, and the construction of an additional two.

But reports indicate that the judgment was given in default of a defence by the Attorney General’s Department. Some critics, have therefore, accused officials of the AG’s Department of deliberately refusing to defend the state to enable Mr. Woyome secured a default judgement of GHC51,283,480.59.

Contributing to discussions on PeaceFM's flagship programme, "Kokrokoo", Randy Abbey who was reading from transcripts of the court ruling said the Attorney-General, in accordance with the law, and in respect of the judgement, mutually agreed with the plaintiff, Mr Woyome, to pay the money in three equal installments.

“The defendant shall pay to the plaintiff the sum of GHC51,283,480.59 in three equal monthly installments in the sum of GHC17,094,493.53 beginning June 2010 and ending August 31, 2010, in full and final settlement of the judgement debt.”

The agreement added that “The terms of settlement shall be entered as consent judgement subject to the usual default clause.”

To strengthen the agreement terms, the Finance Ministry wrote a letter to the court to confirm “the contents of the terms of settlement as per the advice of the Defendant who is the principal legal advisor of the government of Ghana.”

While Mr Woyome was expecting the first installment of GHC17 million to be paid in June 2010, a Principal State Attorney, Mr Samuel Nerquaye-Tetteh, acting on behalf of the A-G, on July 28, 2011, filed a writ in court stating “That the failure of the Applicants to file a defence was not deliberate or in disrespect of the court but …were of a mistaken belief that there was no defence to the claim and therefore did not file a statement of defence.”

The writ added, “It has now come to the knowledge of the Applicants that there is a defence to the action.” The writ that there was even a mistake in the amount to be paid, insisting the amount was GHC41,811,480.59 million and not GHC51,283,480.59 as stated by the court.

The A-G subsequently filed a stay of execution to “enable them defend the claim on the merits of the case.”

The judge, Justice I. O. Tanko Amadu, granted the stay of execution albeit in part and conditionally.

He said since the Defendants filed their writ and the stay of execution after due date for the payment of the first installment of GHC17 million to Mr Woyome, the A-G should pay that money with the interest accrued subject to the Plaintiff also filing an undertaking to return the money in full should the A-G succeed in his defence and should the Plaintiff lose his case.

Despite this directive by the court, the state, it appears has gone ahead to pay the entire sum of GHC42 million to the plaintiff.

The TV Show host who obviously could not come to terms with the the A-G's decision to instruct the state to pay Mr Woyome GHC42 million, contrary to the court order that the state should pay the NDC stalwart and businessman an amount of GHC17 million, felt some explanations needed to be forthcoming from the state.

However, Mr. Woyome claims there is nothing untoward about the decision to pay him that hefty amount. He maintains there is a third ruling which the public can access from the court registrar and which will probably address the concerns of everybody.

According to him, Randy Abbey only read transcripts of the second ruling.

Making a quick intervention on PeaceFM's flagship programme, "Kokrokoo", the embattled NDC guru admitted that he, as an individual, has no contract with the government of Ghana.

He, however, stressed that the company he represented, VAMED Engineering Company of Austria, bid and won the contract to renovate the two stadia but the Kufuor government short-changed him.

Source: Peacefmonline.com