MD of Ghana Water Company in hot waters

After showing triple tongue over dirty deals

Kweku Botwe Screwed

AS Eoco freezes Kickback account

The Republic can say with certainty that the Acting Managing Director of Ghana Water Company Kweku Botwe is in hot waters following a painstaking investigation that exposed his rotten empire of breach of due diligence and contractual improprieties.

The under pressure Kweku Botwe made a quick u turn on the Sakawa Damongo Water Project deal when he confirmed the signing of a Contract of Works Agreement between Ghana Water Company Limited and Sunir, the Iranian Company on Hot fm’s current affairs programme on Tuesday August 2nd 2011.

In a heated interview on Hot Fm an Accra based radio station, Kweku Botwe doggedly admitted barely 24 hours after denying on Radio gold a day earlier the existence of any contract between Ghana Water and Sunir.

The incriminating evidence that The Republic has been serialising over the last week might have influenced Mr kweku Botwe to eat the humble pie since the paper blew his cover with impeccable evidence to support our story on the Sakawa Damongo Water Project.

Mr Kweku Botwe had in separate interviews denied any substantive contract existed and that negotiations between the two parties had just began, he also stated emphatically that the Iranians were going to fund the Project, an assertion that has turned out to be false.

Asked whether he knew Mr Ravi Amar, the Indian self styled businessman who is the at the centre of the Sakawa Damongo Water deal ,Mr Kweku Botwe struggled to put up any cogent answers to the barrage of questions ,he told Omahene, the host of the programme that Ravi Amar does a lot of business with Ghana Water Company Limited, but he fell short to give any further details about the nature of business.

The evasive acting Managing Director of the Ghana Water Company Limited, Kweku Botwe who is obviously in a tight corner following startling revelations about shady award of contracts to his cronies without due regard to laid down procurement regulations. Further revelations unfolding from this paper’s investigations into the award of some contracts at Ghana Water has emerged that whilst government struggles to find solution to the nation’s perennial water problems at pain, the acting managing of Ghana Water, a company under state subvention is allegedly fraudulently lining his pocket with kick backs from donor subventions set aside for contracts to improve Water delivery system in the country.

The Republic has gathered that the inflation of the contract sum for the Damongo Water Project is just a tip of the iceberg of countless number deals of that goes on at the Ghana Water Company, with Kweku Botwe, the Acting Managing Director being the pivot of the grand scheme.

Among the charges that has been levelled against the acting MD of Ghana Water Company is that, Kweku Botwe has contracted brokers who source for prospective clients, who are willing to buy contracts from the company. It cites two instances where contractors who are part of the syndicate used different companies to buy Ghana Water Contracts.

Sources close to EOCO said Botwe is being investigated “for procurement irregularities and fraudulent misconducts” and which amount to flouting the Procurement Act, 2003 (Act 663).

Incisive details of the contracts that was made available to the republic revealed that the Acting Managing Director of Ghana Water Company awarded these contracts between the 2008 t august 2009.

In a strong worded petition addressed to the Board Chairman of the Ghana Water Company and copied to the Honourable Minister for Water Resources, Works and Housing, that was cited by the republic titled MASSIVE FRAUD AT GHANA WATER COMPANY LIMITED, the petitioners backed their claims with documents which chronicled a list of alleged shady contracts that was awarded to cronies of Mr Kweku Botwe. It was this petition that compelled the economic and organized crime organization (EOCO) to institute a probe into these contracts. One striking characteristics of some of the contracts the republic sighted was the dates year that some of these contracts were awarded. Six out of these shady contracts were awarded on the 24th of December 2008,four days before the run-off of the 2008 presidential elections. Our source at Ghana Water Company limited intimated to the republic that the beneficiaries of these contracts were just two people who with the collaboration of Mr Kweku Botwe allegedly formed over fifty companies for the purpose of being offered the contracts. It is alleged that proceeds of these contracts are paid back to Mr Kweku Botwe and his chop chop brigade at Ghana water company limited as their share of the contract cash through the bank accounts of the following companies, J.K LARBI CONST ACCOUNT NO (001321654)BARCLAYS BANK HIGH STREET BRANCH ACCRA. N.K CONST WORK-BARCLAYS BANK HIGH STREET S.K.T CONST- BARCLAYS BANK HIGH STREET DABOAT CONST-BARCLAYS BANK HIGH STREET NKANSAH PISASCO LTD-UNIBANK ABOSSEY OKAI BRANCH N.K CONST WORK - UNIBANK –ABOSSEY OKAI BRANCH. The Republic can confirm that EOCO has frozen the listed bank accounts of the companies as part of their investigations into the alleged massive fraud at the Ghana water company limited. This development in the company has brought considerable pressure on the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing to expedite action in taking a decisive decision on the embattled acting Managing Director of the Ghana water company limited Kweku Botwe before his actions grinds the operations of Ghana Water to a halt.