More Stinkers From GWLC

WHEREAS the purchase of meters for the company was a tale of two Adjeis - Charles and AB - in duping the Ghana Water Company Ltd. (GWCL), when it came to procuring cast iron pipes and other accessories, however, the ring was expanded to include S. G. O. Lamptey, Robert Tackie, Samuel Aidoo and P. R. Tamakloe.

Lamptey was the General Manager (Operations of GWCL), Tamakloe was the Managing Director of Western Castings Limited, Robert Tackie, the General Manager (Finance and Administration, GWCL) and Samuel Aidoo, the Financial Accountant.

Among the financial losses these persons caused to the state were a staggering ?2,562,506,902 through overpayment, non-invoiced payment of ?491,812,000 and cancellation of ?800 million from the company's creditors list.

These are vividly captured in the second section of Justice N. Y. B. Adade's Committee of Enquiry's report on the GWCL. Western Castings Limited was contracted in August 1999 to supply cast iron pipes to the tune of ?3,552,358,680 but Charles Adjei ended up paying ?6,114,856,582.90 to the company, according to the report.

Again, he collected a loan of ?1.5 billion from the SSB Bank Limited in the name of the water company for the supplier, a practice that caused financial loss to the state.

According to the report, by December 2000, GWCL owed SSB Bank Ltd. ?305,698,846.00 and ?22.5 million being the interest and commitment fee, respectively, on the loan he collected for Western Castings Ltd.

Under this same cast iron pipe transaction between GWCL and Western Castings Ltd., the committee's report revealed that Messrs. Robert Tackie and Samuel Aidoo wrote off an amount of ?800 million from the creditors list.

Both could not explain why such a huge amount was cancelled. The committee therefore suspected that this act "would be just the tip of the iceberg" and therefore called on the government to probe the matter further.

The committee, in fact, recommended that until both give satisfactory explanation, they should be dismissed from the company.

On the overpayment of over ?2.5 billion to Western Castings, the committee recommended that Charles Adjei, A.B. Adjei, S.G.O. Lamptey, Robert Tackie, P.R. Tamakloe and Western Castings Ltd. be jointly and severally made to pay the money "as a matter of urgency."

The report said Charles Adjei threw away the prices of the goods as detailed in the August 19, 1999 agreement and established his own scheme of prices to govern the transaction.

The supply of cast iron pipes, according to documents, made available to the committee, was supposed to be within eight months but extended to over one year.

This was in spite of the fact that Charles Adjei used the name of GWCL to raise almost half of the contract sum in a loan from SSB Bank for Western Castings. And on top of it all, 40% mobilisation fund was provided by GWCL into the bargain.

Justice Adade's committee established that the water company did not need such quantities of cast iron pipes in excess of its working capital and that at the time of the committee's investigations, several months after the importation, a large number of items had not been touched at all.

That was not all; for Western Castings, according to the report, supplied some other goods that were not captured by the contractual agreement but were paid for by the "big five of the water company."

The committee realised that there was disagreement between Western Castings and GWCL as far as the payment of an amount of ?491m was concerned. While Western Castings denied having received the money, the GWCL claimed to have paid it.

At any rate, the amount is to be surcharged on and recovered from Charles Adjei and Robert Tackie.

Contrary to the contract details that prices were to be paid in cedis, GWCL paid these monies to Western Castings in dollars.

The findings and recommendations made by the Adade Committee on the cast iron pipes transaction are independent of the findings and recommendations made on the $300,000, $82,000 and ?1.136 billion fraudulently made on the importation of water meters which were reported in our lead story of yesterday.

Indeed, subsequent reports that you must stay tuned to read from the Chronicle will give insight into more terrifying deals perpetrated by some of the people paid from the tax payers' money at the GWCL.