Woyome�s Case Adjourned To Dec. 18

The Accra Fast Track High Court, Financial Division, yesterday adjourned to December 18, the civil suit brought before it by the state against Alfred Agbesi Woyome for allegedly collecting GH�51,283,480.59 from the state, by fraudulent means. Yesterday�s sitting was adjourned, because the presiding judge was said to have travelled on an official assignment. However, Mr. Woyome and his counsel were both present. Woyome is currently standing trial at the Financial Division of the Fast Track High Court on two counts of willfully causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretence. He has, however, denied any wrongdoing. The Attorney-General filed the suit, seeking an order for the refund of the judgement debt of GH�51,283,480.59 paid to Mr Woyome because, according to the state, it was procured fraudulently. Among the reliefs contained in the writ filed at the Registry by the Attorney-General is a declaration that the terms of settlement filed on June 4, 2010, to the effect that Mr Woyome should be paid the sum in three equal installments of GH�17,094,495.53 were procured by mistake on the part of the A-G and due to fraudulent misrepresentation by Mr Woyome. Additionally, the A-G is seeking a declaration to set aside the consent judgement of the court on the grounds that Woyome had no contract with the government, and consequently lacked the cause of action and capacity to make the said claim in any court of competent jurisdiction. However, in his amended statement of defence and counter-claim, Woyome denied the negotiation of the judgement obtained by him on May 24, 2010 was arrived at by mistake on the part of the A-G and that after he had obtained the judgement, he was invited by the A-G to a meeting on May 27, 2010. As a result of the meeting, an agreement was reached that the judgement debt be steeled by the payment of GH�41,811,480.59 as the judgement debt of five million euros or its cedi equivalent. State prosecutors said Mr Woyome, in February 2010, made a false representation that the government owed him two per cent of �1,106,470,587 for his services of financial engineering for the rehabilitation of the Kumasi, Accra and El-Wak stadia, ahead of the CAN 2008 African Cup of Nations. At the hearing on November 6, the ninth prosecution witness told the court that responses from the Bank of Austria to two institutions in Ghana indicated that there was no agreement to provide funding for any project in Ghana. Two institutions the Police Administration and the Attorney-General�s Department had written to the bank for responses to whether Mr Woyome had any agreement with the bank to provide funding for projects in the country. The witness, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Edward Odame Okyere, an investigator with the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, said the bank also responded that there was no binding offer from it, to fund projects in Ghana.