By Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D.

This article is in no way intended to define its caption. Rather, what I am seeking to do here, is sift through the legion and multi-angled news stories and articles that Ghanaians continue to be bombarded with on the ongoing judgment-debt conundrum, in hopes of arriving at some sort of evidentiary conclusion regarding the apparently curious definition that the otherwise rather mundane term of “contract” appears to have assumed in Fourth Republican Ghanaian political culture. In other words, there clearly appears to be something suspicious and sinister going on behind the scenes between executive Ghanaian politicians and the various business enterprises, largely foreign-owned, that is not being candidly let on to the taxpaying, proverbial Ghanaian public.

In one of the latest trading of accusations, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, the current Deputy Energy Minister, vehemently faults Prof. Mike Ocquaye, former Energy Minister in the Kufuor administration and Second-Deputy Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament, for a breach of contract in the matter of ISOFOTON, the Spain-based manufacturers and/or suppliers of agricultural implements and solar-energy equipment, whose proprietors are reportedly seeking $1.3 million in a judgment-debt verdict against the Government of Ghana (See “Kufuor’s Gov’t Had No Contract with ISOFOTON – Ocquaye” Ghanaweb.com 7/14/12).

For his part, the erudite Prof. Ocquaye, a retiring parliamentarian and professor of law, emeritus, of Ghana’s flagship academy, the University of Ghana, Legon, insists that the Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) never entered into any conclusive and/or ratified contractual agreement with the plaintiffs, and that ISOFOTON was merely a participant in a bidding process that appears not to have been concluded or may have been indefinitely postponed, perhaps because the Kufuor government does not seem to have found its ideal contractor. Prof. Ocquaye has also dared Alhaji Fuseini to produce any document offering proof of his rather outrageous allegations. As of this writing (7/15/12), Alhaji Fuseini was reported to be only insisting that evidence or evidence, the former Chief-of-Staff of former President John Agyekum-Kufuor, Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, and Prof. Ocquaye, ought to be held squarely accountable for the ISOFOTON judgment-debt claim.

Needless to say, it is not exactly clear just how Alhaji Fuseini intends to hold Messrs. Mpiani and Ocquaye responsible for the criminal charge of causing financial loss to the State, without the provision of hard or concrete evidence to back up the same. In other words, the Deputy Energy Minister may well stand the risk of being sued by Messrs. Mpiani and Ocquaye for willful defamation of character.

On the other hand, and in the clear absence of any documentary evidence substantiating the ISOFOTON demand for the $1.3 million judgment debt, there may still lurk a pat and verbal “gentlemanly” agreement, in which a former member of the Kufuor cabinet or a well-placed insider might have put the proverbial cart before the horse, by promising some key ISOFOTON operatives the awarding of a contract that never came to fruition. What such hypothetical promise might have entailed could well have involved some representatives of ISOFOTON forking up kick-back money in order to guarantee the awarding of the still-born contract.

If the foregoing observation has any iota of verity, and the vehemence of the ISOFOTON operatives clearly appears to substantiate this observation, then both ISOFOTON and their business contacts within the erstwhile Kufuor government have some explaining to do, as it were. It also means that players, other than the Ghanaian taxpayer, may be squarely liable for this ISOFOTON scam artistry.

*Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of English, Journalism and Creative Writing at Nassau Community College of the State University of New York, Garden City. He is Director of The Sintim-Aboagye Center for Politics and Culture and author of “Ghanaian Politics Today” (Lulu.com, 2008). E-mail: okoampaahoofe@optimum.net.
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