General News of Tuesday, 25 June 2013

Source: peacefmonline

Isofoton will not seek review

Spanish firm Isofoton SA which has been ordered by the Supreme Court of Ghana to refund about $400,000 to the state, says they will not seek a review of the court’s decision though they consider the ruling as an unjust.

Though it accepts the verdict of the Supreme Court, the company says it disagrees with it and will fight on till justice is done them, giving strong indication that its lawyers have a different strategy to seek for justice following the ruling.

On Friday, the Supreme Court ordered Isofoton to refund some $325,472 illegally paid them by the state in a case brought against the company by former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice Martin Amidu.

The Court by a unanimous decision ruled that the company's contract with government was not approved by Parliament hence it is null and void.

The Spanish firm was seeking $1.3 million judgement debt over claims their contract was illegally terminated by the erstwhile Kufuor government after being contracted to supply Solar powered pump for irrigation.

They have described the ruling as unfair as well as saying they will not pay the money because government owes them 1.3 million dollars.

Country Representative of Isofoton, Anane-Agyei Forson, has revealed that with the existence of the International Arbitration Committee, the Spanish firm choice of redress.

In an interview with Hot fm, Anane Agyei Forson stressed that his company is not prepared to suffer for the mistake of the previous administration.

“…this is not a matter of whether ISOFOTON will pay or not, every money is valuable which must be honored…but the debt which the (then) government made my company incur when the contract was abrogated should be deducted from what the Supreme Court has instructed ISOFOTON to refund to government,” he added.

He further said that ISOTOFON could not have forced the government to send the contract his company had with the government for Parliamentary approval; indicating that the continuation of the contract was completed by another company for payment without Parliamentary approval.

The former NPP Constituency Chairman opined that what has just happened to ISOFOTON was selective justice in that government only seeks its interest in contracts which have become the subject of discussing but tend to quickly refer the matter to court if the contract in question goes against it under the guise that there was no Parliamentary approval.

“….this is not the end of the matter…We, as a firm accept the verdict of the court, but disagree… we will fight on. We have told our lawyers to look at the case and advice us on the next step.... We will definitely claim our money; even if we will go for international arbitration,” he added.