IT firm sues Ghana Police Service over online recruitment.

An Information Technology (IT) firm, Waltergates (Gh) Limited, wants the ongoing recruitment exercise into the Ghana Police Service halted until a GH¢25 million suit against the service has been determined.

An application for interlocutory injunction filed on behalf of the company by its lawyer, Mr Godwin Edudzi Tamaklo, will be moved at the Commercial Court in Accra on May 18, 2016.

The applicant specifically wants the court to restrain the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and his agents “from going ahead with the sales of the e-vouchers for the online recruitment exercise as advertised in the various newspapers and the implementation of the online recruitment project, the subject matter of this instant suit, pending the final determination of the substantive matter and for such other order(s) as the Honourable Court may deem fit”.

The company, which claims it had expended more than GH¢4 million and had so far printed more than 250,000 scratch cards for the exercise, is claiming that until restrained by the court, the defendant would go ahead to implement the project and sell the e-vouchers it had developed.

According to the applicant, the Ghana Police Service breached a contract entered between it and the service for the online recruitment of potential recruits by terminating a contract between it and the service on April 9, 2014.

Following from that it sued the IGP and the Attorney-General, for a declaration that the decision by the Inspector General of Police to withdraw from the agreement is a breach of contract and wrongful.

The plaintiff is additionally admonishing the court to award GH¢13,967,000 for breach of contract and special damages of GH¢25 million for the expenses incurred in printing the scratch cards.

Legal cost and any other cost the court might deem fit are being sought by the applicant.

Just circumstance

Making a case for the grant of the interlocutory injunction, the applicant said it would be just and proper for the court to restrain the IGP pending the full and complete determination of the issues in the matter and that the justice of the matter involved dictates that an interlocutory injunction should accordingly be granted by the court to restrain the IGP and his agents from interfering with the project pending the final determination of the instant suit.

Statement of Claim

A statement of claim accompanying the writ of summons stated that Waltergates Ghana Limited was contracted by an agreement dated October 19, 2012 to provide online recruitment for the Ghana Police Service.

The applicant claims that in the year 2011, the Ghana Police Service engaged its services to assist it to move the process of recruitment of its personnel from manual means, which was associated with logistical and administrative bottlenecks, to a technology-based process in order to avert the problems militating against the recruitment process of the Ghana Police Service.

The applicant noted that upon various negotiations and presentations done by it, the Ghana Police Service became satisfied that it (applicant) was in the position to assist it resolve the difficulties it faced with its recruitment processes.

As a result of that “on June 13, 2012, the Ghana Police Service, acting in the capacity of Inspector General of Police, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the plaintiff to develop an online e-recruitment portal for the recruitment of personnel into the Ghana Police Service”, the statement of claim noted.

It said prior to the consummation of the agreement, the parties had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on June 13, 2012, for the development and deployment of the online recruitment portal.

“Applicant says its Chief Operating Officer, Solomon Andoh, signed on its behalf while the Inspector General of Police, Paul Tawiah Quaye, signed on behalf of the Ghana Police Service. The Ghana Police Service informed us that they had  sought  advice from the appropriate authorities  on  the decision taken by the service, the results of which was the MoU between the plaintiff and the service, before proceeding further with execution of the  agreement between them”.

The applicant averred that the agreement was witnessed on behalf of the applicant by Emmanuel Attu whereas Ken Yeboah, Director, Legal, witnessed for the IGP. 

Terms of Contract

According to the applicant, it was to provide, among other things, the development of an e-recruitment portal. 

“The Ghana Police Service had consulted the Attorney-General who advised it to proceed with the decision to move the recruitment processes of the Service from the manual procedure to that presented by us which advice resulted in the signing of a Public-Private Partnership Agreement (PPA) with the Ghana Police Service on the 19th day of October, 2012 wherein we were obliged to provide the Service with the online e-recruitment service(s) in accordance with the terms and conditions stipulated in the PPA,” the statement of claim said.

“Applicant says that it was further agreed that the parties will share all net revenue generated from the web portal in the ratio of 60:40 with 60 per cent to the Ghana Police Service and 40 per cent to the Plaintiff. It was further agreed that the net revenue shall be declared at the end of each recruitment exercise,” the statement of claim noted.

Investment

According to the applicant, it had so far expended more than GH¢4 million for the purposes of development and deployment of the online recruitment portal.

 Applicant averred that the contract was for a limited period of two years to perform the services listed in the agreement which also included an obligation of creating the online e-recruitment platform/portal as well as developing, financing, operating, maintaining, and co-managing the online recruitment portal.

Obligations discharged

It said after executing the PPA, the applicant immediately began to discharge its obligations thereunder by creating the online e-recruitment platform/portal and securing funding from its investors to pre-finance the logistical and administrative cost of the project.

Applicant further avers that having discharged its obligations under the PPA in accordance with the terms stipulated therein it informed the service of its  due performance of the necessary obligations thereunder and further called on the Ghana Police Service to get the service to perform its side of the bargain by making available to the plaintiff information technology (IT) and human resources personnel nominated by the Ghana Police Service to be trained for the purposes of implementing and co-managing the e-recruitment system created pursuant to the PPA.

“Applicant says that having done all these and expecting the Ghana Police Service to have fulfilled its part of the obligations, in blatant disregard for the expressed terms therein contained, it wrote to the plaintiff on April 9, 2014 to inform it of the unilateral decision to withdraw from the PPA,” the statement of claim noted.

It said it took several steps with the active participation of its lawyer to resolve the issue but all to no avail only to come across a May 11, 2016, newspaper publication asking the public to purchase e-voucher forms from designated points.

The applicant claims it had so far printed more than 250,000 scratch cards but, that notwithstanding, the Ghana Police Service had blatantly breached the agreement.

Joined to the suit is the Attorney-General.