Woyome companies not registered

ASP Edward Odame Okyere, the investigator in the trial of Alfred Agbesi Woyome, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) bankroller for allegedly fraudulently receiving a GH¢51.28 million judgment debt yesterday testified that no bidding took place for the construction of the stadia for Confederation of African Football CAN 2008 tournament.

The police investigator who appeared as a prosecution witness in the case involving Alfred Woyome’s dubious payment revealed that Waterville Holdings and Austro Invest had not been formally registered to operate in Ghana.

According to ASP Odaame Okyere, the Registrar General’s Department had no formal records of the operations of the two companies which benefitted from the payments of gargantuan judgement debt.

He told the Accra Fast Track High Court Financial Division in his evidence-in-chief led by Mathew Amponsah, the principal state attorney that “the bidding process did not go on at all,” adding that the government withdrew from it before it could take place.

The witness told the court presided over by Justice John Ajet-Nassam that Alfred Woyome, who was the alternate director of Austro-Invest, came into the picture at the time the bidding was supposed to take place and wanted government to be part of it but because government wanted sole sourcing, the process was halted.

According to him, he got to know the accused person in 2012 when he was being investigated for allegedly defrauding the state to the tune of GH¢51,283,480.00 and was asked to come to his office at the Police Headquarters to give a statement.

The police officer noted that based on an interim report from the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) he had to arrest Woyome, Paul Asimenu, the Legal Director of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Samuel Nerquaye Tetteh a state attorney and his wife, Gifty.

ASP Odame Okyere also said they took a statement from the accused person who gave a document claiming he was owed 2% of GH¢1,106,470,587.00 being his professional fees for work done towards the construction of stadia at Tamale, Kumasi, Elwak, Sekondi Takoradi for CAN 2008.

In addition, he said Woyome claimed the fees included the building of hospitals in six regions, as well as an accident centre and mentioned the companies involved as Vamed Engineering, Austro-Invest, Waterville Holdings and M-PowaPak.

The investigator said the core aim of Vamed was stadia building, while Austro-Invest and M-Powapak were into micro-financing.

Explaining further, he said in Jan 5, 2005 the government of Ghana placed an advert for prospective companies to participate in the bidding process for the construction of stadia and noted that a lot of companies showed interest but the number was scaled down to eight.

He said the companies were supposed to show their sources of funding and to present them to the Ministry of Finance for assessment, adding that when assessment was done and bidding forms were bought, Vamed handed over their rights and obligations to Waterville Holdings.

ASP Odame Okyere stated that when Austro-Invest was to simulate for funds to do the construction, Woyome came into the picture as he said he was the alternate director.

The investigator said he wrote to the Registrar-General about the background of the four companies but was told that apart from Vamed Engineering which was registered in Ghana there was no other records on the three companies.

The witness tendered a letter from the Registrar-General in evidence after which he stated that he got to know Vamed was from Austria and was into stadia construction, while Waterville was from the United Kingdom and into stadia construction, adding that Austro-Invest was from Austria and into micro-financing while M-Powapak belonged to Woyome.

The case has been adjourned to November 6, 2013.

Woyome has been charged with causing financial loss to the state and defrauding by false pretences but he has denied any wrongdoing.