I Was Paid By Court Order � Woyome

State prosecutors Thursday rounded off the cross-examination of Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the businessman who is accused of putting in fraudulent claims to defraud the state to the tune of GH�51.2 million. The Fast Track High Court, which is hearing the case, therefore, adjourned to November 19, 2014 for his lawyers, led by Mr Sarfo Buabeng, to re-examine him. Woyome has pleaded not guilty to two counts of causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretence and is on a GH�20 million bail. Earlier, the accused person had told the court, presided over by Mr Justice John Ajet-Nasam, that he obtained justice from a court of competent jurisdiction when the government was ordered to pay him for the financial engineering services he rendered for CAN 2008 projects. �When I made my claim to the government and it failed to pay me, I went to the law court of the land and I had justice and I was also paid by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction at all the stages,� he stated. He was answering questions under cross-examination by a Chief State Attorney, Mrs Yvonne Attakorah-Obuobisa. Mrs Attakorah-Obuobisa had suggested to him that because the government never intended to be a borrower of funds for the CAN 2008, it rejected the offer of the funds financially engineered by Woyome, but the accused person described that assertion as �incorrect�. �My claims were supported� When it was suggested to him that all the monies he claimed in his petition to the Attorney-General were based on figures that did not exist, the accused disagreed. �The figure I based my claims on in court is a total summation of letters of support which were put in the bidding box and were accepted by the Van Lare Dosoo Committee and the Tender Committee Board,� he said. Adorned in his usual white linen African wear, Woyome, who was accompanied by his wife and supporters, told the court that over 764,117,646 million euros was made available to the government for the construction of the entire CAN 2008 projects. He stated that he helped raise the fund based on the conditionality attached to the loan and feasibility report given to the World Bank and �it was accepted by the Van Lare Dosoo Committee and attested to by the then Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Yaw Osafo-Marfo�. Projects He named the projects as nine regional sports stadia, an Olympic-size stadium in Accra and five regional hospitals. The others were the construction of a modern spa along the Michel Camp and a Cobalt 60 and Tissue Culture Eradication Plant to solve food insecurity in the country. He stated that in his petition to the then Attorney-General, he requested for a purported two per cent in excess of one billion euros. That, he said, was inclusive of over 300 million euros for the hospitals, 12 million euros for the Cobalt 60 and Tissue Culture Eradication Plant. When it was pointed out to him that those projects were not part of CAN 2008, Woyome disagreed and said he helped the government to raise the 764 million euro fund based on the conditionality attached to the loan and feasibility given by the World Bank. He said he led a consortium which was awarded the contract for the construction of the regional stadia and rehabilitation of the Ohene Gyan and the Baba Yara Sports stadia in Accra and Kumasi, respectively. In pursuant of the project, he said, a special purpose company was set up, made up of the government of Ghana, contract guarantor, the Local Organising Committee (LOC), Vamed and Waterville. �That was based on the reason that Ghana, being HIPC at the time, the contracting company would ensure that the cash flow from the total project would be channelled through a special account specified by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the IMF. �That was the condition upon which the loan for the projects were granted,� he told the court, explaining that the special purpose company was �a vehicle of financing and not a registered liability company�. - See more at: http://graphic.com.gh/news/general-news/33742-i-was-paid-by-court-order-woyome.html#sthash.JNq4Escb.dpuf