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NPP Press Release
Jan 10, 2012
STATEMENT BY THE NEW PATRIOTIC PARTY ON
THE WOYOME SAGA
The NPP has noted that the Public Accounts Committee of
Parliament has announced that it is about to commence
hearings, in matters arising out of the Report of the
Auditor-General on the Public Accounts of Ghana
(Consolidated Fund) for the Year Ended 31 December 2010.
This includes the payments made to Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome
which has created public outrage. We note that article 186
of the 1992 Constitution, gives Parliament the exclusive
jurisdiction in matters arising out of the Auditor-General’s
Report. We note that the Minority in Parliament had earlier
called for an independent body to be established by the
President to investigate the matter. However, events
subsequent to this call has led us to the irresistible
conclusion that a bi-partisan body, the Public Accounts
Committee is in the best position to investigate this
matter.
Firstly, the President in his interaction with senior
journalists and editors at the Castle, Osu, on January 9th
2012 stated categorically that he was not going to heed to
the call to set up the independent enquiry.
Secondly, the answer by the President that he did not
authorise the payment of the monies to Woyome and or did not
know anything about the payment has put the President’s
participation in the Woyome Saga in issue. We wish to draw
the attention of the people of Ghana to the fact that
recently in Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni appeared
before the Public Accounts Committee of the Ugandan
Parliament in a matter in which the Ugandan Attorney-General
and Minister of Finance had made payments which raised
issues similar to the payments made to Woyome.
Last but not least, we view the invitation by the President
to EOCO to intervene in the matter a smoke screen, charade
and a calculated attempt to cover up the involvement of the
President and his Ministers in this unfortunate unfair.
We wish to point out that, the first person to make this
call for EOCO to intervene, was none other person than
Woyome, the main actor in this whole saga. The petition to
EOCO was sent by Benjamin Akyena Brentuo, of the Office of
the President. Also whilst the President claims, as he did
in his press interaction, that he is merely seeking a report
from EOCO, EOCO is investigating alleged serious offences
involving fraud in the award and execution of contracts
relating to CAN 2008. This becomes even the more curious,
since the Attorney-General, Hon. Betty Mould-Iddrisu who
failed to defend the action and agreed to a consent
judgement, when Woyome made his fantastic claims against
government, went back to court herself seeking to set aside
the judgment on account of mistake.
For the above reasons, we as a Party have decided that our
officials and members will not be part of the investigations
at EOCO, since this forms part of a carefully orchestrated
ploy by government to cover up. We wish to emphatically
state that, whilst the NPP was in government, Alfred Agbesi
Woyome never entered into any legally enforceable contract
with government.
Also, whilst we were in government, we never had any proof
that Woyome had made any sum of monies available, especially
the ONE BILLION EUROS, which forms the basis of his supposed
claim for financial engineering services rendered to
government.
We wish to note that Parliament, through its Public Accounts
Committee will scrutinize all the judgment debts contained
in the Auditor-General’s Report. Our members will cooperate
fully with the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament. We
call upon the Committee to hold televised public hearings.
Jake O. Obetsebi-Lamptey
(National Chairman)
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