Following
recent warning by Matthew Addai an advisor to Isofoton SA and a
self-acclaimed member of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), to
two other members not to muddy the waters, the NPP guru still seems
dissatisfied and would not let go until the truth is unveiled.
Speaking on Radio Gold on Thursday, he emotively described the party leaders as liars.
His
reason is that former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Professor Mike
Oquaye together with Mr. Kwadwo Okyere Mpiani, then Chief of Staff under
the erstwhile Kufour administration, cannot absolve themselves from
blame because they played integral roles in the annulment of the
Isofoton contract.
The man who claims he introduced Isofoton to
the Kufour government and further led the former Minister of Energy, Ken
Dapaah, to Spain to sign an agreement, held strongly that Professor
Mike Oquaye and Mr. Mpiani were the real architects of the deal.
He
was reacting to a Supreme Court order that Isofoton SA should refund
the money it received as judgement debt from the Government of Ghana to a
tune of about $400000 to the State.
The ruling, which ignited
discussions in the public domain over the involvement of certain public
officials in the payment of the debt to the company, saw Mr. Mpiani
calling the bluff of his critics.
He was of a strong view that he
had been vindicated by the ruling for his constant denial that the then
government had a contract with the company to warrant any payment and
refuted claims that he unilaterally abrogated the contract awarded to
the Spanish firm to supply solar energy to the nation.
He
explained that a Committee was set up by former President Kufour to
screen a number of Spanish companies and determine the proficient one
for the contract. A sifting was then done the Government of Ghana
through the help of the Spanish government which, according to Mr.
Mpiani, recommended which of the companies could be competent for the
work.
“…The Committee decided that we should give this [the
contract] to that company which had been recommended to us. This was
sent to the President and the President approved and [I] being the
Chairman wrote to the Ministry of agriculture that this project should
be given to this company”.
“So that was the decision of
Government which I, as the Chief of Staff, communicated to the Ministry
concerned. So this wrong impression which goes all along that I
abrogated the contract and I, on my own selected the company and gave
the job to, is wrong; it’s not true,” he told Radio XYZ.
Professor
Mike Qquaye is said to have also denied any misconduct on his part,
claiming that Isofoton was advised to tender in a new contract using an
appropriate avenue following the promulgation of the Procurement Act.
Nonetheless,
Mr. Addai thinks this claim is “absolute nonsense. The procurement law
that was passed in 2003 did not take retrospective effect; so does
contracts signed prior to the promulgation of the procurement law.
Professor Quaye is a lawyer and a former lecturer in law at the
University of Ghana; he’s talking nonsense,” and insisted that he “is
not fit to hold public office of any kind in this country. He should
quit from politics.”
He believed the two leaders are just
“throwing dust into the eyes of the Ghanaian public. They know that
ISOFOTON had a contract…It’s so painful to see leaders of a party that I
once associated myself to lie so much to people. Did they think I was
dead? Did they think I would never come out to speak? I know for a fact
that they wish I had died…,” and therefore dared the NPP to challenge
him to reveal documents unveiling their actions and inactions in
connection with the Isofoton case.
To him, Isofoton was unfairly
treated since they had a valid contract with the Kufour government and
therefore called for thorough investigations into the case.
He
wants Mr. Mpiani and Professor Mike Oquaye to “be investigated,
questioned and if possible made to suffer a penalty; penalties which
they when they were in power had inflicted on previous people in
government.” |
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