Woyome Saga: Mpiani 'Schools' CID Investigators

Former Chief of Staff under the erstwhile Kufour administration, Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani was on Wednesday questioned by the Police CID over his role in the infamous Woyome scandal involving a GH¢51 million judgment debt paid to embattled businessman Alfred Agbesi Woyome.

Mr. Mpiani, who was invited not as a suspect but as a citizen to assist in unraveling the circumstances under which the payment was made to Woyome, was the third ex-government official to be quizzed over the controversial saga.

Former deputy Sports Minister, O.B Amoah and former Finance Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo are all ex officials who have been grilled by the Police CID as part of investigations into the scandal.

Peacefmonline.com can confirm that the session lasted nearly two hours and mostly focused on the award of contracts for the construction of CAN 2008 stadia; the genesis of the payment of the controversial judgement debt.

He was present with his counsel, Egbert Faibille.

Sources disclosed to Peacefmonline.com that a calm-looking Kwadwo Mpiani made it clear he did know Woyome as anybody who had any dealings with government.

"...the police did not say whether they needed Mpiani to return...the investigators at a time wanted to be teachers but turned out to be students of Mpiani," Mr Faibille told the media.

Since the Woyome saga took the centre stage of the country’s political discussions, there have been running media battles between Waterville and Mr. Mpiani over the cancellation of a supposed contract the former claims it won for the construction of five stadia for the CAN 2008 tournament.

As Mr. Mpiani challenges Waterville Holdings to produce evidence to support their claim that they were awarded a contract to construct five stadia, the embattled company insists that the procurement process for the two stadia contract awarded to the Shangai was not in compliance of the Public Procurement Law.

To buttress this claim, Managing Director of Waterville, Andrea Orlandi at a recent press conference in Accra, said “In spite of the Waterville being given approval for the award of the five stadia, the government decided to award two of the five stadia already awarded to Waterville to Shangai Construction Group”.

According to him, on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the government, Waterville started work on the refurbishment of the Accra, Kumasi and Elwak sports stadia.

He said subsequent to this, a contract was signed on April 26, 2006 but was later abrogated.

But Mr. Mpiani has since maintained that Waterville was never given a contract to work on five stadia as claimed by Orlandi. He explained in various media interviews that the said April 26, 2006 contract quoted by Orlandi was in respect of the renovation of the three stadia which itself was predicated on Waterville’s ability to secure funding for the projects.

According to Mr. Mpiani, because Waterville failed to secure the funding which was a major prerequisite of the transaction, the government exercised its right to abrogate it – which was subsequently acknowledged by the Waterville without any protestation whatsoever.

He however found it curious that the company will, upon the coming into office of a new government, make claims on the basis of an illegal abrogation of the contract.