There is so much glee; our money (Ghana money eeeh) will be retrieved from Woyome.

Woyome Headline news! Anything about Woyome always makes good reading. Let’s take a step back and decouple our emotions from this ruling and look at the implications.

This ruling was based on a technicality; i.e. the agreement with Woyome was not a contract because it was not approved by parliament as it should have been. Absolutely correct! I would say…there is no contract. However it is wrong to hold the contractor responsible for incompetent public sector staff not doing their job properly. Woyome is out of pocket because the government deceived him that he had a contract when he didn’t.

My question is, how do I, a contractor, completing a public procurement form know whether the government has fulfilled all its legal obligations and sought all the necessary permissions before going to tender? The ruling from the court is now saying I am responsible for conducting all these relevant checks on government procurement, making sure all the boxes have been ticked, getting parliamentary approval etc. before I work with the government.

How many contractors will have the capacity to engage in this? If along the line government has not conducted due diligence, why should the lay man be held responsible.

What now stops government to freely abrogate contracts mid-way because they accidentally/intentionally did not tick all their boxes before contracts were put out.

Contractors should be worried about this ruling.

The precedent and the implication is that anyone who engages with government/or contracted by government needs to make sure he/she is aware they are aware of legislation on what government can put out and what it cannot. Where do you get this information from?

I live in this UK but can’t see a court giving this ruling because there is an innocent party here. Woyome was deceived by the government that he had a contract when in actual fact the Government did not got parliamentary approval and fraudulently put the tender out.

Again, this is simply fraudulent and bullying, and if I were Woyome I would have sued the government for deceit.! And ask them to pay all these expenses. I am sure if Woyome knew parliamentary approval was not done, and this was not a contract, he would not have offered his services.