‘Prosecute govt officials who facilitated payment to Woyome’

Mar - 18 - 2015 , 05:02

The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has urged Ghanaians to demand the prosecution of all government officials who connived and facilitated the payment of GH¢51.2 million to businessman Mr Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

According to the party, it was time Ghanaians became vigilant, stood up and fought for the payment made to Mr Woyome to be refunded to the state.

It said the High Court’s acquittal of Woyome on March 12, 2015 vindicated the long held position of the NPP and, indeed, many Ghanaians, that his criminal trial was just “a show of trial to throw dust into the eyes of Ghanaians”.

‘Create, loot and share’

“Per the Supreme Court ruling, there was no basis for the payments and the payments were in pursuit of the government’s agenda to create, loot and share,” the party stated.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday, the Communications Director of the NPP, Nana Akomea, said, “The payment of the colossal amount of GH¢51.2 million to Woyome was simply a ploy by the government to steal taxpayers’ monies.”

Shoddy prosecution

“It is instructive that the High Court trial judge described the effort by the government to prosecute Mr Woyome as shoddy, lackadaisical and a complete waste of time,” he stated.

According to him, the criminal prosecution of Mr Woyome was so shoddy that the testimonies of some state prosecution witnesses were actually used by Mr Woyome’s defence as vindication of their case.

Nana Akomea said the trial judge’s comments were also in consonance with comments by the Supreme Court justices on the civil case.

He stated that the Supreme Court had held that there was “absolutely” no basis for the payments to Messrs Woyome and Waterville, and that it should have been clear to anyone that the claims could not hold water.

“That the government, entrusted with the people’s mandate to govern, could perpetuate such a gargantuan fraud on poor Ghanaians is mind-boggling.

“The facts and processes surrounding the payment to Mr Woyome most clearly demonstrate connivance and collusion, without which motive the payments defy logic,” he said.

Woyome’s claims

Nana Akomea recounted the sequence of events that led to the payment of the fraudulent judgement debt to Mr Woyome.

He said Mr Woyome made a presentation to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government on February 18, 2010, claiming payments for work he claimed he had done for the previous NPP government between 2007 and 2008.

“Without consulting the relevant members of the former government and only claiming advice from lawyers at the A-G’s office and the Ministry of Finance and Sports Ministry officials, the A-G wrote to her colleague Minister of Finance on March 17, 2010 and March 31, 2010 to request payments to be made to Mr Woyome.

“The Minister of Finance, on April 6, 2010, just one week after, instructed the Controller and Accountant-General to process the payments. The controller, on April 7, 2010, issued instructions to the Bank of Ghana, while the Minister of Finance, then on April 12, 2010, wrote to the A-G for further documentation on Mr Woyome’s claim,” he said.

No defence

Mr Akomea indicated that due to some delay in the payment, Mr Woyome filed his claim against the government in court on April 19, 2010 and the A-G put up no defence in court.

That, he said, allowed Mr Woyome to have the liberty to amend his claim twice and shortly obtained an uncontested default judgement on May 24, 2010 of an amount in excess of GH¢105.5 million.

He said the A-G promptly entered into negotiations with Mr Woyome and both settled on the payment of GH¢51.2 million, which was to be paid in three instalments of about GH¢17 million each. They duly filed that in court as ‘consent judgement’ on June 4, 2010.

“Strangely, just five days later, on June 9, 2010, the A-G apparently had a change of mind and went back to court to claim that Mr Woyome did not deserve any payments, that the agreement was a mistake and prayed the court to set aside the consent judgement filed five days earlier,” he said.

Pre-settlement

He said the High Court, eventually on September 9, 2010, ruled that as per the terms of the consent judgement filed by both Mr Woyome and the A-G, the government was to pay only “the due amount of GH¢17 million”, while the court went into the merits of the A-G’s writ.

“Most strangely, under circumstances not well explained up to date, the A-G proceeded to a pre-trial settlement conference with Mr Woyome on December 7, 2010, at which they agreed that the government would pay all the GH¢51.2 million to Mr Woyome.

“The government, through the Ministry of Finance, accordingly proceeded to pay Mr Woyome GH¢10 million on January 27, 2011, another GH¢10 million on April 8, 2011 and GH¢14.1 million on September 12, 2011.

“This, in addition to the earlier payment of GH¢17 million on October 6, 2010, brought the total to GH¢51.2 million,” he added.

Mr Akomea said after the final payment in September 2011, “all was forgotten until the Auditor General reported the payments to Parliament late in 2011 and the resulting public uproar, disdain and shock forced the government, in early 2012, to arrest Mr Woyome for the abandoned court case against him to resume.

“It is this case that was eventually dismissed on March 12, 2015 for being shoddy, lackadaisical and a total waste of time,” he said, adding that the “evidence of collusion and connivance on the part of the government cannot be denied”.