… As Area Manager Ms. Bawa Is Fingered In Million-Cedi Deals

From Dominic Jale & Kofi Safo-Antwi, Kumasi

Fraudulent acts of gigantic proportions are oozing like tap-water from the Kumasi Area outfit of the motherly State Insurance Company (SIC) Limited , where a certain Ms. Lydia Bawa who heads the section and prides herself as being in the warm books of the powers-that-be, stands accused of perpetrating so many heinous deals against the corporate image of the Company.
And so alarming are some of the deals that instead of the Kumasi Area SIC being safe under Ms. Bawa’s care, the branch is like a rider-less horse galloping for a NEVER-TO-RECOVER-FALL. This may certainly spell doom for the Company in that part of the country and all businesses under the branch’s canopy.
Among the litany of heart-shattering and jaw-breaking issues that have landed on the prying table are bogus deals, illegitimate claims, a unilateral show of authority, mis-use of office, rude behaviour towards some clients that have all dovetailed together, to prompt some business concerns to withdraw their businesses from the Company.
Ms. Bawa, who hardly stays at post in Kumasi has for the past two or so weeks been away in Accra, lobbying power blocks within the corridors of government like hell, in an apparent bid to catch the eyes of the appointing authorities, with all focus on the MD-ship while her backyard in Kumasi is in a needed state of disrepair.
THE SUN gathered that it was some of these dubious deals right underneath her watch that prompted the dismissed Managing director, Mr. Ben Acolatse to pencil her for transfer from the Kumasi branch to Takoradi. On that occasion, Ms. Bawa rushed to the Labour Commission scheming and barking in the process of seeking redress.
Indeed while on the prowl in Kumasi THE SUN’s SPOTLIGHT TEAM discovered that in May 2011, SIC was made to settle a motor accident claim for a certain Erica Afriyie by Afia Fofie, at Gh¢20,000.00 plus costs.
A letter dated April 4, 2011 authored by Area Manager Ms. Bawa and forwarded to the Claims Settlement Committee in Accra, indicated that the claimant-lawyer, a certain Sulley Sambia, had secured an interlocutory Judgment against the SIC and called for prompt settlement of the claim.
Part of the letter sent to the Claims Settlement Committee and authored by Ms. Bawa read, “the claimant’s solicitor was invited for further discussion on the claim and he has rejected our offer of Gh¢20,000.00 inclusive of costs. He indicated that he would rather go to court. He has gone ahead to obtain an interlocutory judgment, a copy of which has been served on us”.
On April 5, 2011, a purported Notice of Interlocutory Judgment was submitted by Sulley Sambia to the Area Manager, who also forwarded it to the Claims Settlement Committee in Accra.
Part of the content of the so-called Interlocutory judgment read, “please take Notice and Notice is hereby given you that following our inability to settle the above claim, the plaintiff per her next friend, sued your insured on February 25, 2011, and has since obtained interlocutory judgment against her”.
With the so-called interlocutory judgment looming over SIC’s head, the Company had no option than to go ahead to settle the Gh¢20,000.00 claim, plus costs to the claimant.
However, it came out during THE SUN’s SPOTLIGHT TEAM’s investigations in the Kumasi High Court that the so-called Interlocutory judgment tendered in by Lawyer Sambia, was a figment of the creation of the lawyer’s own chamber.
This position had further been confirmed by Mr. Samuel Boafo Amewuho, Registrar of the Kumasi High Court when on March 20, 2012 he wrote to SIC’s Legal Affairs Department upon request that, the Court never sat over the purported Interlocutory case.
High Court Registrar Boafo stated that, “nowhere in our records was any interlocutory judgment granted to the plaintiff. I therefore state categorically that, there has never been any proceedings whatsoever in our Court (High Court ‘7’) on the 18th day of March, 2011 concerning the above-mentioned case. As such, I cannot confirm any interlocutory judgment delivered in that case till today”.
This, quite naturally raised hell from THE SUN’s SPOTLIGHT TEAM which then prompted Ms. Bawa to debunk claims that she was in league with lawyer Sambia, in the use of dubious documents to secure claim.
When suspicions rose to a crescendo Ms. Bawa rushed with alacrity to defend and stated that, “as far as I am concerned I acted upon what Lawyer Sambia submitted to me and more so, the Claim Settlement Committee did not settle the claim above what Lawyer Sambia was demanding before the Interlocutory judgment issue came up. Again, since SIC was liable I saw nothing wrong”.
Interestingly, Ms. Bawa continued by arguing that the claim in question was forwarded to Accra and was settled by the Claims Settlement Committee because, SIC was liable and not the interlocutory judgment submitted to the Committee.
She is on record to have disagreed that she was at all material times aware that the so-called interlocutory judgment submitted by the lawyer was fake.
However when THE SUN’s SPOTLIGHT TEAM reached Lawyer Sambia for his reaction, he agreed that the interlocutory judgment he submitted to SIC was a fake document.
Sambia claimed that it was meant for another case and that he mistakenly used the names of Erica Afriyie and the claimant, Afua Fofie on the document which was not supposed to have been so.
Even though Ms. Bawa defended and tried to extricate herself from any wrong-doing in the bogus claims settlement, the big question she failed to answer is why as an Area Manager, she sat down aloof without prompting the Legal Department’s attention for a default judgment to be entered against SIC.
As a result of this, the Claims Settlement Committee queried the Legal Department for failing to defend the case in court, leading to the claimant’s counsel securing an interlocutory judgment against the Company.
Upon the query the Legal Department wrote on March 20th 2012 to the Kumasi High Court Registrar, Mr. Samuel Boafo Amewuho, to verify the authenticity of notice of the interlocutory judgment against the Company, which was forwarded to the Claims Settlement by Ms. Bawa and her good friend, Lawyer Sambia.
It was this letter from the Legal Department to the Registrar that corroborated THE SUN’s earlier findings that, notice of the interlocutory judgment was fraudulent, bogus and therefore untenable.
THE SUN has gone down over the hill at evening fall and at SUNRISE next time, the paper will churn out more of Bawa’s questionable deals under her control as Area Manager of Kumasi SIC. THE SUN