Sale of AMA properties on hold
Meetings are being held by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP), the Attorney-General’s Department, the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and Vans Mart to save the properties of the assembly from the auctioneer’s gavel to settle a judgement debt of GH¢33 million.
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Officials attending the meetings are tight-lipped about the outcome but indications are that the sale of the properties of the AMA to pay the debt can be avoided.
The intended auctioning of the properties has been necessitated by a court order following the inability of the assembly to settle a GH¢33 million debt owed City and Country Waste Limited (CCWL), a solid waste management company.
Vans Mart was scheduled to auction the city authority’s assets, which include its head office, the chief executive’s official residence at Ridge, vehicles and other landed properties yesterday, November 7, 2013, but that did not happen.
While some workers of the assembly said they were anxious, others told the Daily Graphic that they believed the problem would be resolved.
CCWL/AMA contract
The CCWL entered into a contract with the AMA in December, 1997, but the contract was allegedly abrogated in 2001.
In the agreement, the AMA was said to have contracted CCWL to provide services for pre-collection, collection and haulage of refuse within Accra.
Under the agreement, waste collection and haulage equipment for the provision of the services by CCWL was to be provided by the AMA and leased to the company for a term of five years, while landfill equipment was to be leased for seven years.
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The CCWL was to pay user fees to the AMA for the equipment over five years from the inception of the agreement for waste collection and haulage equipment and over seven years for that of the landfill equipment.
After the respective periods, the equipment was to become the property of CCWL.
According to a representative of the company, during the pendency of the agreement, CCWL submitted various invoices to the AMA for payment in respect of work done, but the assembly paid only a fraction of the invoices.
The CCWL, therefore, sued the AMA in 2002, claiming GH¢12 million, being the cost of the services it rendered to the assembly in two years but which was in arrears at the time the contract was abrogated.
The Accra High Court granted the reliefs sought by CCWL and ordered the AMA to pay the amount.
Not satisfied, however, the AMA appealed against the judgement but lost at the Court of Appeal. It then proceeded to the Supreme Court where it lost again.
The Supreme Court, presided over by Ms Justice Sophia Akuffo, with Dr Justice S. K. Date-Bah, Mr Justice J. Ansah, Mr Justice R. T. Aninakwah and Mr Justice S. K. Asiamah as members, in a unanimous decision on February 13, 2008, ordered the AMA to pay the amount plus interest, which amounted to GH¢29 million by August, 2008.
AMA appeals
In May, 2008, the AMA made an application to the Supreme Court to pay the money in instalments but was ordered to pay the initial amount of GH¢12 million by August the same year and spread the remainder over one year.
Following the Supreme Court’s decision, lawyers for CCWL filed a writ of possession and officials of the company have since been threatening to effect the court order.
A copy of the court’s order has been posted at the assembly’s head office in Accra, with portions of it mandating the company to seize the assembly’s property for public auction if the AMA failed to take steps to pay the debt.
Daily Graphic/Ghana