Kufuor’s Cabinet deliberately cancelled my contract - Woyome

Business man Alfred Woyome has said he has proof that the former Kufuor administration deliberately terminated a contract awarded him by the State toward constructing some stadia in Ghana ahead of the 2008 African Cup of Nations which was hosted by the country.

Mr. Woyome told journalists at a press conference in Accra on Friday May 10, 2013 that Mr. Kufuor’s government, at the time, held a one-item Cabinet meeting at Akosombo with the sole purpose of terminating the appointment for no justifiable reason.

“Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo [Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice] was a member of that Kufuor's cabinet, and Osafo Maafo’s [former Minister of Youth and Sports] memo is there; where they planned that they will do exactly what they did, and they had to marshal all their forces internationally and nationally”.

He wondered why any government would want to cancel what he described as an “already and legally procured amount which had concurrent approval from the Procurement Board which nobody could set aside”.

Mr. Woyome alleged that: “They put this matter as a one-item cabinet meeting in Akosombo and all of them moved there only to cancel this particular thing because it is Woyome”.

Mr. Woyome is currently battling the State in Court over a Ghc51.2 million paid to him by the same State as judgment debt for the cancellation of the said contract.

He is accused of fraudulently obtaining the Ghc51.2 million under false pretenses.

Mr. Woyome was awarded the judgment debt after dragging the State to Court over the cancellation of a contract worth 1.5 billion Euros, which he maintained his firm, M-Powapak played a pivotal role in securing.

He claimed the money was for financial engineering as well as damages for illegal termination of the contract, which his company and its partners won.

Mr. Yaw Osafo-Marfo who was the Minister of Youth and Sports at the time of cancellation of the contract told the Court in July 2012 that at his first testimony as a prosecution witness that the State had no contract with Mr. Woyome because an initial agreement with VAMED Engineering, a company which Mr. Woyome fronted for, had been abrogated due to improper procurement processes.

At that hearing, Mr. Osafo-Marfo produced a letter in court, which according to him, was critical because it was written by VAMED Engineering, Mr. Woyome's partners, in which they were reacting to a letter from the Government terminating a tender process for the construction of stadia for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations tournament.