In 94 Million Euros CP Judgment Debt Payment *

Snippets of information from behind the scene investigations, launched by The Herald, in to judgement debt payment to Construction Pioneers (CP), reveals that ex-Finance Minister Yaw Osafo-Marfo wanted two top ministers, in the erstwhile JJ Rawlings government, jailed by the Kufuor regime.

Mr. Osafo-Marfo is said to have written, in a confidential letter, directing the prosecution of Dr. Ato Quarshie and Mr. Kwame Peprah, who respectively served as Ministers of Roads and Highways, and Finance in Rawlings’ government, for “causing financial loss to the state”.

The Herald is closing in on the confidential documents including one shockingly written by ex-Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Joe Ghartey, who directed the then Finance Minister, Osafo-Marfo to pay CP an amount of €9,181,460.45, being a concession that the government of Ghana owed the construction company.

Interestingly, the same Joe Ghartey had told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament that the Kufuor administration, sensing fraud and other underhand dealings on the part of Dr. Ato Quarshie, dragged the CP case on by battling the construction company in its numerous legal tussles against the state, believing that the company did not have a case.

The CP case against Ghana, resulting in the controversial 94 million Euros judgement debt payment to the construction firm by the states has been ongoing since the 1970s, according to revelations at the PAC hearings. The Albert Kan-Dapaah led committee, is probing the justification for the payment.

Another confidential document that The Herald is closing in on is one written by ex-Road Minister, Dr. Richard Anane, who served in the Kufuor administration, accepting the then government’s liability to CP.

At the committee’s hearing last Wednesday, Road Minister Joe Gidisu disclosed that the government is convinced some former ministers who served in the Kufuor administration have questions to answer over a judgement debt payment to CP.

The Road Minister who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Central Tongu Constituency in the Volta Region, told members of the PAC that the negligence of the former officials led to the state losing in excess of €6 million.

According to him, CP were entitled to legitimate claims having done legitimate work for the country, but the former officials of the Kufuor administration dragged their feet in honouring what was due the company, leading to a substantial financial loss to the state.

He argued that CP won all its cases against the state in arbitration and succeeded in taking custody of assets belonging to Ghana in the UK as well as assets belonging to the COCOBOD.

He said it was only after this freeze that the then government made payment of €15 million to CP, adding that payments to CP began under the previous government.

“As far back as June 2008, CP in attempts to enforce the arbitration rulings, which were all in its favour, took up the case against the Ghana government and succeeded in attaching the Ghana government in the UK, including the assets of the COCOBOD.

As a result of this development, the Ghana government finally paid $1573,212 for the work completed in 2001.”

“If government was responsive enough to pay this money by July 2003, it would have saved the Ghana government an amount of $6, 758,592,” Gidisu stated.

He cited two key officials, Joe Ghartey and Osafo Marfo as having played key roles in this negligence.

He said Joe Ghartey further wrote a petition to ex-president Kufuor on November 6, 2007, detailing the amount owed to the construction company, after which the president constituted a committee chaired by the then Finance Minister Osafo-Marfo to look into the demands.

But former Finance Minister Osafo-Marfo has dismissed the comments by Joe Gidisu as half truths and factually inaccurate.

He told the Accra-based Joy FM radio station that he left government as a minister on April 27, 2006, and could not possibly have chaired a committee constituted by the ex-president in 2007.

Explaining the reason for the litigation between the Kufuor government and the CP, Osafo-Marfo said as a minister and MP in 2001, he was privy to a situation in which key roads contracted to CP were not constructed and yet were paid for with substantial amounts.

He cited the Oda and Nkawkaw road which he said had never seen any form of construction but had received payments.

He said the allegations by Joe Gidisu are empty and only a futile attempt at equalization.

“I see an attempt by the NDC government, and it was obvious from Joe Gidisu’s presentation of the serious equalizing. If they have done something wrong then they should attempt to grab somebody in the NPP to have done the same thing,” he alleged.

He wondered how the Minister, in discussing matters of the Auditor General’s report for payments made in 2009, would sway into payments made in 2003.

“If we are looking at the 92 million paid in 2009, you don’t go there talking about 1 million paid in 2001,” he said.

Osafo Marfo however stated that he is ready to appear before the Committee to answer any question pertaining to the CP case.

In response, Mr. Gidisu noted that although he got some facts incorrect, the substance of his submission before the PAC remains true.

Mr. Gidisu also told Joy News that a former Transport Minister under the Kufuor government, Dr. Richard Anane wrote a letter dated December 23, 2008 to the Attorney General in which he drew the government’s attention to the amount of money owed CP.

He said Mr. Joe Ghartey had also advised the Finance Ministry to pay CP $9 million. He therefore challenged any attempt to lay blame entirely on the NDC government.