The Chronicle
By Emmanuel AkliEven before the Economic and Organized Crime Office (EOCO) could submit its report on the circumstances that led to the payment of a whopping GH¢58 million to National Democratic Congress bankroller, Alfred Agbesi Woyome, The Chronicle can report that the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning sanctioned the payment, after convincing the Attorney General and Minister of Justice with a dodgy document, suggesting that Mr. Woyome had a genuine contract with the government.
In a letter dated March 25, 2010, and signed by Paul Asimenu, designated as Director in charge of Legal Affairs at the Ministry Finance and Economic Planning, on behalf of the sector Minister, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, he argued strongly that Mr. Woyome did financial engineering work with regard to the stadium renovation work and was, therefore, entitled to 2% of the funds he supposedly secured from an Austrian bank for the project and others.
“It is my considered view, given the complexity of the work involved in securing the financing in question that the claim of 2% is deemed legitimate. I have been asked to request Hon. Attorney to review the foregoing for determination to be made on the claim,” Mr. Asimenu indicated in his letter, which was written to the Attorney General.
A source, which spoke to The Chronicle, noted that this letter fooled the Attorney General not to enter appearance when Mr. Woyome filed the suit against the government, making claims for the work he had done for the government and, therefore, was entitled to 20% of the money he allegedly secured.
When the suit was filed against government, the then Attorney General, Betty Mould Iddrisu, failed to enter appearance and rather negotiated for consent judgment, which was adopted by the court.
After Mr. Woyome had received part payment of the money that was awarded him, Madam Betty Mould Iddrisu went and filed a stay of execution against the consent judgement, because she made a mistake and that new evidence had emerged, which was granted.
The judge also ordered Mr. Woyome to write an undertaking that he would return the money, should he lose the case. Information, however, indicates that at the time the Attorney General was filing for the stay of execution, the money had actually been paid to Mr. Woyome.
In a related development, The Chronicle is investigating allegations that one of the protagonists in what has become known as ‘Woyome scandal’ took a loan of GH¢4.5 million from a bank, belonging to a top government official, which was repaid immediately the Accountant General effected the payment of the judgment debt. This reporter gathered that the one who took the loan paid it with an Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) Cheque.
The Chronicle further gathered that after the cheque had been received by the said bank, owned by a top the government official, the owner instructed his management team to write “Zero Float” on the cheque, after which it was immediately transferred from the records of the bank.
It was also established that when the one who took the loan first put in the request, management of the bank rejected it, but the top government official and owner of the bank intervened and ordered that the money be given. Stay tuned for details.
Meanwhile, the following is an unedited version of the letter written by the Mr. Paul Asimenu on behalf of the Finance Minister, arguing why the money must be paid to Mr. Woyome.
“I have been directed to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated March 17, 2010, pertaining to the above subject matter and to outline the facts relating to the financial engineering aspects of the matter.
2. Documents reviewed on the subject include the advisory opinions of Building Industry Consultants (BIC) consultants for the project and Mr. Rex Danquah, the CEO of the LOC Secretariat, the petition of Mr. Woyome, and other internal memoranda pertaining to the matter.
3. We note from the submission of BIC that other aspects of the claims are being reviewed by your office and as advised, we have limited our review to the financial engineering claim.
4. I have to state that I was part of an evaluation team of three persons who evaluated the financial offers of the companies shortlisted for the project.
The team was under the chairmanship of the then Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mr. Lionel Van Lare Dossoo with Ms. Yvonne Quansah of the Aid and Debt Management Division of the Ministry as the other member.
5. In reviewing the financing offers, the evaluation team sought clarification on issues for which elaboration was required from some of the groups.
In the case of the M-Power Pak/Austro Invest/Waterville offer, the team received clarification of the required issues from Mr. Alfred Woyome, the financial engineering consultant for the M-Power Pak/Austro Invest/Waterville group.
6. Available information reveals that the contract for the works, which had been started by Waterville, was later re-awarded to their subcontractors, Micheletti, for Ohene Djan Stadium and El Wak, while that for Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi was awarded to Consar Limited.
7. Available records also reveal that following the change of contractors, Waterville put in claims for payment of specific amounts of money based on certification by the project Consultants, Building Industry Consultants Limited (BIC).
These claims, according to available document did not include financial engineering.
8. Regarding the legitimacy of the claim for financial engineering, we would like to state that it is a cost that is chargeable internationally and may range from 0.5% – 5% of the contracted sum.
The actual fee paid under international best practice, however, depends on the type of project, its complexity and amount of work involved. This may involve retaining insurance companies to underwrite aspects of the cost of the facility.
9. In the specific case of the financing in question, we have evidence of file which shows that the negotiations leading to availability of the funds which Bank Austria made available involved negotiations with the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) of the World Bank Group and other financial institutions.
10. It is pertinent to state that the amount of credit made available for the Stadia Projects amounted to €764,117,646 for which the claim for financial engineering is being made. It needs to be pointed out however that the financial term sheet reviewed from Bank Austria included financing for other projects namely; €329,411,765.00 for six hospitals and €12,941,176.00 for a Cobalt 60 plant and tissue culture project. The grand total of sums made available by Bank Austria through the Woyome led consortium therefore amounted to€1,106,470,587.00.
11. The evaluation team adjudged the finance offer from Bank Austria Creditanstalt arranged by Mr. Alfred Woyome the lead consultant who led M-Power Pak/ Austro Invest/Waterville Holdings as the most competitive.
We accordingly recommended that offer to Government. Our review revealed the Bank Austria facility as having a grant element 36.2% of which met Government’s concessional criteria of 35% grant element.
12. It is my considered view given the complexity of the work involved in securing the financing in question that the claim of 2% is deemed legitimate.
13. I have been asked to request Hon. Attorney to review the foregoing for determining to be made on the claim.
14. Enclosed are relevant documents pertaining to the claim.”
Signed: Paul Asimenu
Director, Legal.
For: Ministers.
Cc: Hon. Minister, MOFEP
Hon. Minister, Youth & Sports
Hon. Deputy Ministers, MoFEP
Hon. Chief Director, MoFEP
No comments:
Post a Comment