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Had enough of Woyomegate?

E. Ablorh-Odjidja               

We are here referring to the NDC administration of Ghana and the Wayome imbroglio.  There is much at stake on this issue. Whether or not President Atta Mills administration is really implicated in the case is the main issue.  It needs to be resolved; the sooner the better for all.

The political consequences of Woyomegate are predictable.  It has already been negative for the Mills led government.  The likelihood of a violent December 2012 election can, therefore, be assumed as this administration will do everything to maintain power; certainly to prevent the unpalatable from  happening should there be a regime change by 2013.

Surprisingly. Woyomegate happened under NDC, an offshoot of the PNDC that rose to power through a coup in 1981, with the self-righteous corruption free society ideal as the objective.  Driven by overzealous sense for probity, the PNDC toppled a constitutionally elected government, killed, maimed and jailed fellow citizens for lesser crimes than Woyomegate.   It was later to transform itself to a constitution respecting party, the NDC, by 1992. 

The party has since been brought to power through the ballot twice, one under Rawlings, the architect of the 1981 coup and the other under Atta Mills, the current president.

Under President Mills administration, the NDC mantle for probity and accountability is slowly becoming a joke.   Immediately after his inauguration, NDC cohorts went after members of the previous NPP administration looking for alleged corrupt officials.  They embarked on seizure of cars, setting commissions of inquiry on Ghana@50 affairs and engaged in many other aggressive supposedly corruption bursting exercises.

They found none. Instead, by coincidence and in one of the most dramatic ironies in history, the nation found Mr. Alfred Wayome, the NDC financier, caught in the biggest most corroding corruption case ever! 

National perception wise,  the Mills NDC administration has since been tied to Mr. Wayome like a dog on his master’s leash.  Even a prominent NDC member and a former Attorney General Aminu declared openly that case was one of fraud.  He was promptly sacked by President Mills for his candid opinion..

To make matters worse, the Mills administration, instead of vigorously prosecuting Woyome, had embarked on apparently protracted handling of the case.  This has led some to suggest that some top officers in the administration are part of the cabal that planned the Woyome heist and therefore are now intent on slow walking the case to death.

In the mean time, there is also the wish on the part of NDC sympathizers that other events may happen to help divert attention from Woyomegate.  One such event is the recent ranking of Ghana as the seventh best governed country in Africa by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. But others are skeptical about the honor.  They wonder how years of controversy surrounding this massive corruption case could earn Ghana this ranking and question also who our friends in good governance really are.

Its easy to observe that Woyomegate is the biggest corruption case in our history of granting contracts even though there were bigger project undertakings in the past than the simple refurbishing of stadia, as is the case with Wayome.

“The cost to build Akosombo in 1964 was estimated at $258 million ….. Its development was undertaken by the Ghanaian government and funded 25% by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development of the World Bank, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

Put in perspective, the $50 mil default judgment payment to Woyome is almost as big as the money borrowed from outside to complete the Dam.  And Woyome is not the only recipient of the default judgment payment windfall. There is the one for Construction Pioneers (CP) which is even bigger. (Another giant corrupution case waiting to errupt).

There is more.   The virtual or accrual cost to come is the penalty for being so dishonest in exposing promptly the fraud and the cover-up attempts that followed along the way. This cost is hidden and it has a bite that is worse on our economy than the $50 mil in Wayome’s pocket.

Yet no one I have recently spoken to about this case speaks about this accrual cost. Many are stuck on the impact of the actual check amount paid to Woyome.  The notion that loss of international trust in our institutions could cost us more in the future is lost on many.

The judiciary, the Attorney General’s office, the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Ghana, our central bank, after Woyomegate, must have a deficit in trust at the international market place where we borrow money.

First, how could a judge grant default judgment to a man who had no legal standing (no contract with the government) in a case he fraudulently brought to court?  Yet he got a default judgment because a non-existing contract was breached!

 Second, how could the Attorney General’s office, the legal arm of the government that has the obligation to protect the state, fail to  mount vigorous prosecutorial or defense motions against such a transparently fraudulent case? Yet, the AG’s office was first to throw in the towel.  It has since not shown any real enthusiasm in pursuing this case to its logical conclusion. (Note that the last time at court, the AG’s lawyers were so ill prepared that the judge threatened to throw out the case.)

Third the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Ghana, the exchequer and official bank of the nation, acted like ordinary commercial entities.  After an initial feeble protest, an order was offered by the ministry for hasty payment, short of the vigorous protest that would have been required of them as part of their fiduciary duty!

More perplexing is the question whether the Bank of Ghana and the Ministry of Finance were not part of the signatory process of such big contracts.  Were they ever aware of Woyome’s name on any contract they signed?

The most damaging impression yet is on the image of Mills as president, the first from our most prestigious university, the University of Ghana, Legon, to reach this august office.

The world would look on and conclude that not only are key Ghanaian institutions weak but the same are also corrupt.  The unforgiving financial markets will take this into account and the result will show in relatively higher rate on loans we contract.  The exact total of finance charges we eventually pay on loans in the future is hard to tell now but you can bet it will be hundreds more than the total of the default judgment paid to Woyome and Construction Pioneers.

The ultimate and crucial cost from the Woyome corruption case, however, will be paid in December 2012 when Ghana goes to the polls.  The current administration will do all it can to douse the chances of a change of regime so as to prevent unsavory consequences from Wayomegate from happening.  Election 2012 is going to be violent. 

E. Ablorh-Odjidja,Publsiher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, May 24, 2012
Permission to publish:  Please feel free to publish or reproduce, with credits, unedited.  If posted at a website, email a copy of the web page to publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at all.



 

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