‘Woyome/Waterville Conspiracy’....Top Lawyer Cautioned Gov’t Against Woyome`s Claim

Authentic documents made available to the Special Investigations Team(SIT) of The New Crusading GUIDE by our sources within the Presidency and the Attorney-General’s Department clearly indicate that a top Ghanaian Lawyer, Mr. S. Kwame Tetteh wrote two letters dated September 24, 2009 and November 20, 2009 cautioning the Mills Administration not to entertain the claims then being made on the Government of Ghana(GoG) by Mr. Alfred Agbesi Woyome on the basis that "Mr. Woyome`s emergence in the matter is belated and with no locus standi...".

Lawyer Tetteh, then the Solicitor for Waterville which was also pursuing some claims against the State and which Mr. Woyome was strangely contesting/disputing, disclosed that Waterville did engage M-Powapak to provide Waterville with financial engineering services but the relationship was terminated by a Termination Agreement dated 25th November 2006.

"POWAPAK`S CLAIMS AGAINST WATERVILLE WERE FULLY SETTLED AND ACKNOWLEDGED IN THE AGREEMENT. THEREFORE NEITHER POWAPAK NOR WOYOME HAS ANY CLAIM AGAINST WATERVILLE...," emphasised Lawyer Tetteh in his two letters which were addressed to the Attorney-General, and copied to the Secretary to the President, Mr. J.K. Bebaako-Mensah, the Minister of Finance, Dr. Kwabena Duffour, the then Minister of Sports, Mr. Rashid Pelpuo and Mr. Alfred Woyome of M-Powapak Ltd.

"WE MUST ADD THAT THE STADIA CONTRACTS WERE CONTRACTED BETWEEN WATERVILLE AND THE GOVERNMENT OF GHANA (GOG); NEITHER POWAPAK NOR WOYOME WAS A PARTY. IT IS THEREFORE WRONGFUL FOR MR. WOYOME OR POWAPAK TO MAKE A CLAIM IN A CONTRACT OF WHICH NEITHER IS A PARTY," clarified Mr. Tetteh.

Apparently, Mr. Woyome, purporting to be acting on behalf of M-Powapak had written to the Attorney-General on August 28, 2009, challenging the legitimacy of Waterville`s claims which were then being discussed for settlement.

He continued: “You will observe that having paid such substantial amount to Woyome in expectation of the full execution of the contract as was done in many other instances, it is only fair that our client be compensated for lost profits. We therefore write to request that you review your decision to disallow the claim for lost profits in view of the hardship that will be caused to our client".

Mr. Tetteh argued that Mr. Woyome`s allegation that Waterville`s claim was illegitimate clearly betrayed his (Woyome`s) limited knowledge and involvement in the construction works, and importantly, his motive to discredit the legitimate claim of Waterville to payment of pre-financed works.

"It is on record that work done by Waterville was certified by the Consultant. The certificates were issued pursuant to settlement negotiations initiated at the Castle, Osu a couple of years ago, and Waterville has been pressing its claims on GoG ever since. Mr. Woyome`s emergence in the matter is belated and with no locus standi. The purported discredit of Waterville`s claim betrays a motive to settle scores for matters unconcerned with the current negotiations", Mr. Tetteh stated.

In conclusion, Mr. Tetteh submitted for the consideration of the Attorney-General, his client’s "composite claim as follows: Certified Claims :9,634,240.16 Euros ; Lost Profits:11,935,706.55 Euros and Interest from date of abrogation of contract to present date at Euribor (as per attached); 2,791,070.52"; thus bringing the total claim Waterville was making on the Government of Ghana to 24,361,016.60 Euros.

Our investigations further revealed that somehow, somewhere along the line, the differences between Alfred Woyome and Waterville were settled without the knowledge of the latter’s Solicitor, Mr. Tetteh who was subsequently sidelined and a new lawyer contracted to pursue the claims of Waterville. Waterville then in a dramatic twist of events, wrote a letter dated April 20, 2010 to the Attorney-General, indicating that “Waterville and M-Powapak worked together with Mr. Alfred Woyome when VAMED ENGINEERING transferred their right for the projects in Ghana, as per their letter dated 1st July 2005, to Waterville that replied same day".

According to them, "Waterville then together with Mr. Woyome set up offices in Wien-Austria and Washington DC in addition to the existing offices in Italy and Switzerland. The claim for Mr. Woyome to the Government of Ghana is in respect of financial engineering he structured for the CAN 2008 while our claim to the Government of Ghana is in respect of the work done at site and other costs sustained for a total amount of Euro 21,880,256.59 as per our letter dated 16th April 2010".

Interestingly, Waterville`s April 20, 2010 letter to the Attorney-General which sought to provide Mr. Woyome with "a clean bill of health" in contrast to the earlier stance articulated by Kwame Tetteh on behalf of Waterville, was occasioned by a letter from Mr. Woyome dated April 19, 2010 to Waterville, requesting "confirmation from our office about the financial structuring aspects as part of the project for the construction of stadia in Ghana for CAN 2008".

Waterville intimated to the Attorney-General that it (Waterville) had "entered into a non-disclosure agreement with M-Powapak by exchange of letters dated respectively 1st July 2005 and 6th July 2005, M-Powapak was the local representative in Ghana for VAMED ENGINEERING-Austria".

Mr. Woyome and the Attorney-General, armed with the Waterville letter of April 20, 2010, then proceeded to negotiate a settlement of the claims made by Mr. Woyome on the Government of Ghana IN SPITE OF THE CAUTION ISSUED BY LAWYER KWAME TETTEH AND AGAINST THE TERMS OF SECTION 20 OF STATE PROPERTY AND CONTRACTS ACT, 1960 AGAINST THE BACKDROP THAT THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE THAT EITHER MR. WOYOME OR M-POWAPAK HAD HAD A CONTRACT WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF GHANA RELATIVE TO CAN 2008.

Our on-going investigations have also indicated that the Mills Administration has settled the claims of Waterville. Our roving scouts are still double-checking on the exact amount paid and the latter will be made public as soon as we get the authentic figures. Meanwhile, readers will recall that in our December 20, 2011 edition, we published a letter dated October 24, 2008 authored and signed by Mr. Kwadwo Mpiani, former Chief of Staff, which was addressed to Mr. Dorino Marca of Waterville, to the effect that "AFTER A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION OF WATERVILLE`S CLAIM, WE HAVE CONFIRMED THAT ALL PAYMENTS DUE TO ALL CONTRACTORS ON THE THREE STADIA, OHENE DJAN, EL-WAK, AND BABA YARA HAVE BEEN MADE BY OUR MINISTRY OF FINANCE TO MICHELETTI AND CONSAR. THESE PAYMENTS INCLUDED ALL SUMS DUE WATERVILLE".

Mr. Mpiani`s letter noted that payments to the two contractors on behalf of Waterville were consistent with the agreement between Waterville and the Government regarding the manner of payment to Waterville after the termination of the Waterville contract. It was therefore not necessary to specifically instruct CONSAR and Micheletti, as asserted in a December 20, 2006 letter by Lawyer Kwame Tetteh, “to settle your invoices to your bank accounts after they received the payments from Government".

"Finally, we note your statement that CONSAR and Micheletti have confirmed that they never received any direct or indirect instruction to pay you. We understand this to mean that the contractors are not denying receiving all the payments under the contract except the small amount noted above ($600,000). In that regard, we are by a copy of this letter, instructing them to remit all payments due to Waterville to you immediately. By copies of this letter, all relevant parties are being informed of the result of this very painstaking investigation,” concluded Mr. Mpiani.

Mr. Mpiani has, in the wake of the public uproar over the Woyome saga, publicly reiterated the position he articulated in his October 24, 2008 letter to Waterville; insisting that the latter were paid their due before the exit from office of the Kufuor Administration.

In the case of Mr. Woyome, Mr. Mpiani vehemently denies that Government ever signed any contract with him and has therefore questioned the legitimacy of his claim and the over GH¢58 million made to him by the Mills Administration as judgement debt.

For some documentary evidence see the attached letters below at http://www.peacefmonline.com/ads/woyome2

Source: Special Investigations Team (SIT)/New Crusading Guide/Ghana