The Sweet Tale Of Smart Woyome

Friday, 23 December 2011 08:33

Written by peacefmonline

A LEADER'S WORTH IS ASSESSED BY THE MEN (WOMEN) AROUND HIM

(Machiavelli)
We are indeed in very strange times and strange times indeed we are in. I am not too religious; my belief in life is that whatever evil or sin one commits on earth, he or she would be paid back on earth while alive. In many instances, we are unable to link the sins we have committed at one time or the other against individuals, group of individuals or the society at large to some misfortunes that come our way when we least expect such misfortunes. That is why in some cases we attribute our misfortunes to either some unseen spiritual forces or some imaginary opponents very close or very distant.

This nation's politics has degenerated to the level where the political actors do not see any good in themselves other than ills and crimes even committed by the citizenry outside of active politics. In the process, very evil-minded individual or groups of individuals in this country have taken advantage of the deep crack between political parties, particularly the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), which under the current dispensation are likely to alternate governance for a long time to come. What some 'smart' guys in this country have been doing is to knock the heads of the two political parties together, pave their way to ill gotten riches at the expense of the state, and the next moment either of the two parties are defending and justifying their actions or accusing the other of inactions, stating that the other party did worse during its tenure of office.

Ever since the Woyome story broke out, I have been asking myself whether to continue to have hope in this country. I find it strange first, that pretty aunty Betty Mould would not resign from her position in government basically for the reason that her predecessor Attorney-General, Hon. Martin Amidu, contradicted her position on the suit filed against the Republic of Ghana by Mr. Alfred Woyome, to wit, that she found no defence in the suit for the state, when subsequently the same office of the Attorney-General later said the state had a defence to the suit. This is Ghana where people hardly resign from their positions even when there is enough evidence of either wrong doing or even on matters of principles or beliefs.

How on earth will an Attorney General who is supposed to defend the state and advise the government on legal matters refuse to file a defence on a matter which has huge financial implications for the tax payer, and instead enter into settlement payments with a plaintiff when the full facts of the case is not very open to the Attorney General? There are a few questions here before I proceed further. At the time when the Attorney-General was entering into the settlement agreement with Mr. Woyome, involving this colossal amount of GH¢58 million, had she put the matter before cabinet? Did the cabinet, which has other lawyers beside the Attorney-General, discuss the issue in detail and agree that indeed the state had no defence? Was President Atta Mills, who presides over Cabinet meetings, or in his absence, the Vice President John Dramani Mahama, at the meeting if in fact the Cabinet met on this matter?

If the President was in the know, and as a lawyer, did he also agree that indeed the state did not have any case and for which reason Cabinet allowed the Attorney-General to negotiate a settlement which cost the nation a whooping GH¢58 million? If on the other hand, Cabinet as a whole was unaware of the details of the matter and did not therefore give approval, as can be inferred from the order the President has given to EOCO to investigate the matter, how on earth can a minister authorize another minister to pay such a huge amount of money to an individual who had not had any contractual agreement with the state without the knowledge of the President? If indeed the President was not told of the payment and the circumstances of the payment, then I dare say that the President is not in charge of this country. Under no circumstances will such an amount of money be paid to an individual who has not had any contractual dealings with the state without the authority of the Cabinet presided over by the President.

The second amazing thing about the Woyomic issue is the strength with which some young men at the Castle and within the NDC hierarchy are justifying the payments to Woyome and even making the previous government look bad in the eyes of the Ghanaian populace. The Akyena Brentuos and the Felix Ofosu Kwakyes arguments on air, in defence of Woyome and shifting the blame onto the previous administration even when the Attorney-General, who is the government's legal adviser and counsel is saying that it was an error of judgement for not filing a defence and has consequently filed a motion in a court so the Attorney-General's office would be allowed to contest the case, beats the imagination of any rational thinking person. Why would they not jump from one radio station to the other when such huge sums of money are involved? After all, GH¢1 million out of that is good enough to attract any hungry person to do the bidding of Woyome.

One of the most ridiculous arguments being made by some of these paid PROs of Woyome is the so-called termination of contract by the government, basing their arguments ignorantly on the tendering processes which are opened to all. If anybody bids for a job, a cost is incurred but that cost is never born by the client of that contract. Any tender comes with conditions which first have to be met before the applicant can even be considered among other bidders for the job and these come with costs. If the applicant does not meet the criteria set out by the client as against other applicants, it is obvious that the applicant cannot be considered. In fact, during evaluation by a technical committee, some applicants who failed woefully in meeting the predetermined criteria can even be disqualified before the technical details of the evaluation are considered.

An application for a job does not also automatically mean that the applicant will win the job; in fact an applicant may meet all the criteria set out in the tender advert, but can lose the job on other grounds. Let me offer an example. Somewhere in 2003, the Ahanta West District Assembly advertised for the construction of a six-classroom block with offices and toilet facilities. About five companies applied and tendered in their bids. After the opening and the technical evaluation, the technical team presented its report and recommended a particular company as the best bidder. This company was owned by an NPP person who was at the time constructing a three- classroom block with office and toilet facilities. The contractor had failed to meet the deadline; the materials being used were shoddy and work was not progressing in the view of the assembly.

We had written letters to the contractor, warning him of our displeasure about the quality of work and its progress. He did not even have the courtesy to write back to explain himself. This is the same contractor who had been recommended for another work. When the report came to me, I flatly told the tender board at the time, as the chairman, that I was not going to allow that contractor to prosecute the contract on the basis of his poor record in working for the assembly. We communicated same to him and the job was given to the second best bidder. The assembly committed no crime.

There are many reasons why one can win or lose a contract, or have some sort of an agreement either concretized into a written contract or abrogated at a certain level and the client would not be guilty of any offence. It is also strange that the main contractor, Waterville, did not sue the government of Ghana, but a sub-contractor of Waterville who happened to be Woyome sued the government of Ghana and the Attorney General said it did not have a defence? Why did Woyome, who has admitted that he never had any contract with the Republic of Ghana, not sue Waterville to claim whatever monies owed to him by Waterville, which had contracted him to do some aspects of the main job, even if the Government of Ghana had a full contractual obligation to Waterville?

And we have politicians working at the seat of government defending this indefensible act by the Attorney-General, who has even admitted that it made a mistake in not filing a defence? What has come over us as a people such that we would want to admit and agree that a skinny sick goat can be turned into a fat white cow? Well, many of those might have benefited from this financial haul and must defend it to the hilt. The truth however is that this sick skinny goat can in no way be turned into a white fat cow, particularly when the head of the nomads has asked for a recount of the cows. By the way, Mr. Peasah Boadu, how are you doing? It's been a long time. He was my senior at Boamponsem Secondary School, Dunkwa on Offin, a very brilliant chap. We used to call him 'We believe'. He was the mate of Hon. Isaac Edumadze and Andy Appiah Kubi, formerly of the Freezones Board.

Well, to my cherished readers, please try as much as possible to make this Christmas a merry one even though there is nothing merry about it; it is sorrow all the way. As for me, mahogany bitters is my companion, I shall never want. Two good shots every hour will be OK for me. I wish you all something something Christmas.

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