| |
OCCUPYGHANA® WARNS SSNIT AGAINST
FUNDING NEW WOYOME DEAL
Press Release
November 28, 2016
OccupyGhana® has noted that its
last Press Release on the above-matter has been met with
silence from government officials, and two farcical denials
of there even being an agreement: one by Woyome and another
by Mr. Selby, the Chief Director of the Ministry of
Transport. We have rebutted this by posting the agreement on
our website.
Our further review of the documents
since that Press Release reveal even more disturbing facts
that Ghanaians must know about, one of which is this:
The Government has issued a directive to SSNIT to use
our pension funds to acquire a 24% stake in this phantom
Woyome project.
The documents in our possession show
that sometime in 2009, in a scheme similar to the Stadium
matters which led to the first scam, Woyome managed to
convince government officials that he could establish what
he called “Green Townships” in Ghana. This concept, at the
time, was allegedly to provide solar power and 20,000 houses
for some Urban Renewal Project, which was to be “replicated
and adapted to agriculture, mining or manufacturing
communities.” It made fantastic and unsubstantiated claims
of providing 12,000 permanent jobs and 30,000 construction
jobs for two years, and would “lift over 200,000 people
above the poverty line, including residents and workers on
the project.”
Woyome managed to get the Finance
Minister at the time, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, to write a letter
dated 15th December, 2009 to “in principle accept
participation stake holding of 24% in the joint venture.”
That letter was however clear that the Government
was going to subject the proposal to further discussion with
relevant stakeholders, leading to formal negotiations
towards a definitive agreement. The letter was also clear
that a final position on all aspects of the project would
only be arrived at after discussions with all stakeholders,
subject also to Cabinet and Parliamentary approvals.
It
appears to us that this matter cooled off for several years
while Woyome battled us in court over the GH¢51.2M that was
unconstitutionally and fraudulently paid to him. By the time
Woyome re-surfaced in 2014, what was a “Green Townships”
project had transformed and ballooned into a huge Special
Economic Zone (SEZ) project designed to do practically
everything under the sun: electricity, deep sea ports,
roads, railways, hospitals, factories, agriculture, mining,
archaeological findings. You just name the project, and
Woyome was going to do it.
On 19th August 2016, Woyome’s
consultant, Albert Essamuah Associates Limited, now claiming
to have been appointed as the Government’s consultants (and
we are yet to see evidence of any such appointment), wrote
to the Chief of Staff demanding the latter “to issue an
urgent directive from your august office, to SSNIT through
its Board Chairman, to take up the 24% stakeholding of the
Government of Ghana in the Project SEZ on behalf of the
people of Ghana.” This letter also revealed that “when the
construction of the Port commences the value will escalate
to over US$25 Billion.”
Although this letter was
disingenuously silent about the value of the alleged 24%
stake that SSNIT was to be directed to acquire, what is
apparent is that either SSNIT or the Government was expected
by Woyome to fork out a colossal 24% of US$25B for that
acquisition.
That is a whopping $6 billion!
So, what Dr. Duffuor had clearly stated as an “in principle
acceptance” with several approval conditions was, after the
illegal Framework Agreement was signed between Woyome and
Dzifa Attivor, being represented to the Chief of Staff as a
firm commitment to acquire a 24% stake in the phantom
project.
We are satisfied to note that the Chief of
Staff asked for a legal opinion from the Attorney-General,
not on whether or not Ghana had committed to acquire that
24% stake (which would be false), but on whether the
government could issue the directive to SSNIT as demanded by
Woyome. An opinion dated 30th September 2016 and signed by
Dr. Dominic Ayine, Deputy Attorney-General stated that the
Chief of Staff “can issue directives with respect to SSNIT
to take up the 24% stake in the Project,” but “subject to
compliance with the investment guidelines established by the
National Pensions Act (2008).” We are satisfied that this
opinion did not bind SSNIT to taking up the alleged 24%
stake. However, we are concerned that in one part of the
opinion, it is stated that “this is a proposed stake as
opposed to an actual stake,” while another part claims that
“Government has accepted the proposal [to take a 24% stake
in the project] per the letter from the Ministry of Finance
dated December 15, 2009…”
As pointed out above Dr.
Duffuor’s letter of 15th December 2009 was heavily
qualified, and none of the conditions contained in it had
occurred. There is no obligation on Government to take that
undefined 24% stake. Yet, this was now being packaged almost
as a done-deal, and being foisted on SSNIT.
This is
how Woyome works. That is how he ended up claiming and
collecting GH¢51.2M from Ghana for no work done. The 19th
August 2016 letter from his consultant betrays this, and we
are horrified that our government and its officials are
tolerating this obvious scam for even a day.
We must
also point out that the Framework Agreement entered into
between the Government and Woyome’s Anator Holding Company
Limited, is silent on this alleged 24% stake in a joint
venture. The question to be asked is why the Framework
Agreement fails to mention such a critical material
particular? These are the matters that have led us to
conclude that the Framework Agreement is illegal and a
nullity, at the very least, on the ground of material
non-disclosure.
We call on the government to declare
publicly that it is not bound by this illegal Framework
Agreement. We call on the government to publicly renounce
and repudiate that document, as well as all other steps that
have been taken on the back of it. We call on SSNIT not to
consider, even for a moment, to use the pension funds of
Ghanaians to fund this latest phantom Woyome project.
In the coming days, we will show to Ghanaians even more
shocking aspects of this matter. If Ghanaians do not arise
to occupy their democratic space, public officials, either
through negligence or complicity, will engage in shady and
dodgy deals that would cost the nation money that we do not
have and should not be spending.
Yours, for God and
Country,
OccupyGhana®
|
