… Over illegal transactions at KMA

THE SERIOUS Fraud Office (SFO) in Kumasi has established that a former Chief Executive of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), Mr. Maxwell Kofi Jumah, re-allocated a building site which had originally been allocated to the Ghana Traditional Caterers Association (GTCA), to All State Construction, without recourse to Assembly regulations and tender procedures. Mr. Jumah, currently the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asokwa, is said to have illegally re-allocated the site to one Kingsley Nana Asante of All State Construction, for the construction of a shopping mall on a Build-Operate and transfer basis.

The findings of the SFO indicated that a Memorandum of Understanding, dated September 30, 2003, was signed between the KMA and All State Construction Limited.

The document was signed by the then Metro Chief Executive without a name, with the then Metro Co-ordinating Director, Albert Anthony Ampong, and Metro Engineer, Charles Apomah Mensah, as witnesses.

The SFO has therefore recommended that the Ghana Traditional Caterers Association recover possession of the building located at the Kejetia from All State Construction, which had forcibly and illegally taken over the property.

The SFO, upholding that the rule of law should take its course, directed that the KMA should uphold the decision of a Kumasi High Court, which entered judgment on November 22, 2006, in favour of the GTCA.

It said the proper action must be taken to protect the interest of the state in general, and specifically that of the KMA.

The recommendation follows intensive investigations into the illegal takeover of the project, which had originally been allocated to the GTCA in 2000, with express approval of the then Regional Minister, Mr. Samuel Nuamah Donkor.

According to a report by the SFO, issued on December 17, 2009, the transaction between Jumah and All State Construction was without recourse to Assembly regulations and tender procedures.

Last week, the KMA Boss, Mr. Samuel Sarpong, endorsed the recommendations of the SFO, and directed that the GTCA recover possession of the building, to avoid a charge of contempt for the second time.

The Chronicle is informed that the Assembly was contemplating revoking the Memorandum of Understanding singlehandedly entered into by the former Chief executive, Mr. Jumah, and All State Construction, in which public land was leased to one Nana Asante for 40 years, because it (MOU) was administered outside the Assembly and the legal framework.

Nana Asante confided in The Chronicle that he had valid documents for holding onto the land, even though he had not been able to produce a copy of the said documents to the SFO.

Checks at the Metro Development Control office and Legal Department of the KMA indicated that there was no contract between the KMA and All State Construction, regarding the said land in dispute.

The Chronicle sources said the KMA had facilitated the issuance of a building permit to All State Construction, by the Kumasi Planning Committee (KPC), which act is said to be technically and legally wrong.

It was gathered that when the KPC initially raised the question of ownership of the said land, the KMA, per the then MCD, one Mr. A. A. Ampong, indicated in a letter that the KMA had entered into an MoU with All State Construction.

Our sources at the Legal Department of the KMA indicated that no lease stands in the name of the said land in dispute, and that the only available document, can only pass as a tenancy agreement or a Memorandum of Understanding.

“A claim to any existing document by All State Construction might be a forged one,” The Chronicle was told.

The GTCA instituted action against the KMA in respect of the building, which the GTCA had pre-financed to an advanced stage in their capacity as tenants of KMA.

A Kumasi court, on May 30, 2007, asked the GTCA to recover possession of the property in pursuant to a previous judgment.

Following this order, All State Construction and its agents were ejected from the building, but All State Construction allegedly colluded with the then Police Commander in Kumasi, to forcibly eject the GTCA, even though the order for recovery of possession, upon which All State and its agents were ejected, had not been revoked or set aside.

The KMA was subsequently charged for contempt of court for about four years for not executing the ruling of the court, and refusing to be restrained from interfering in the GTCA’s right of possession of the project in question.

Not even a High Court order of attachment of movable and immovable property, dated February 5, 2008, issued under the hand of Her Lordship Justice Georgina Woode, to prohibit the Assembly from alienating the vehicles until a judgment delivered by the High Court on November 22, 2006, ordering the assembly to pay a total amount of GH¢10,000 to the Ghana Traditional Caterers Association, being cost awarded against the assembly, would make the KMA respond to the court’ order.

The KMA, however, managed to talk the Association into agreeing to let go the cars, including a Nissan Hard Body with registration No. GN 4492 Y; Toyota Hilux D4D pick up No. GN 4292 Y; Toyota Land Cruiser No. GR. 3297 N; Toyota Car No. AS 6538 U; Pick up No. GS 8474Y, and Nissan Hard Body No. AW 247 Y; a Nissan Toyota Pick-up GT 2383 U, Nissan Hard Body No. GV 386 V, and a Volvo saloon car with registration number AS 9850 D, with the promise of paying the cost, but had reneged on their promise since.

Earlier, when the KMA had refused to comply with the court’s order, the GTCA attempted to resolve the issue by petitioning the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who ordered the defendant to honour its part of the agreement, but the KMA, refused to acquiesce possession of the store rooms to the GTCA, resulting in a decision to seek legal redress.

It is on record that Kofi Jumah rebuffed an emissary of the Asantehene, in the person of the Akyempimhene, Oheneba Adusei Poku, who was the Chairman of the five-man Committee to settle the misunderstanding between the two parties.

The snub was after the KMA had indicated, and given the assurance that the association was entitled to the ground, first and second floors of the building upon completion.