Ghana Likely To Pay Another $55 million As Judgement Debt – Kofi Bentil

Senior Vice President of IMANI Africa, Kofi Bentil, says Ghana will lose the $55million case Chinese company Beijing Everyway has filed against it in the Court of International Arbitration.

Speaking on Newsfile, he said that Ghana wrongfully breached the contract it signed with the company which was expected to handle the Accra Intelligent Traffic Management Project.

 

“The issue of this contract is not that it has been cancelled. It is that it has been rewarded improperly and some people with their eyes open did it in such a way that Ghana now has the liability and we are likely to face that $55 million debt.”

 

“It is my patriotic duty not to tell everybody that we will win, but, to warn everybody and tell them that what we have done is wrong and these people are likely to win. If they win we will lose $55million dollars,” Mr. Bentil said.

He said that it would have been less upsetting for him if the country had been slapped with the judgement case because of some mistakes and errors in the contract.

“I have sighted warnings from the Vice President’s office suggesting that we should not do this. There were warnings from the Attorney General’s department that we should watch this and many others.”

“Even if we needed to cancel this, I think we could have done it in a way that will not leave us liable to pay $55million,” Mr. Bentil added.

His comment comes after the private company Beijing Everyway, filed a lawsuit against the Government of Ghana in the London Court of International Arbitration to demand $55 million from Ghana.

The Chinese company was contracted to implement the Accra Intelligent Traffic Management project worth $100 million after Parliament’s approval in 2018.

The company worked on the provision and installation of some traffic management system.

 

During the Appointments Committee vetting, the Minister-designate for Roads and Highways, Kwasi Amoako-Attah admitted that his ministry has been served in the judgement case.

 

However, he failed to give details explaining that “since that legal step has been taken I would not want to comment on it until the matter is determined.”

Kofi Bentil told Samson Lardy Anyenini that Parliament can save the country from losing $55million if it recalls the contract and fixes the mistakes it had created.

 

He explained that the contract for the Accra Intelligent Traffic Management project has not been totally wiped off.

However, a mistake was made when it was given to another company while it was already being worked on.

“I think Parliament now can do something to save this country the $55million dollars.

“Anybody who looks at this arbitration knows that Ghana is going to lose, so we should really really take a very serious view on it,” he added.

 

Source:  Myjoyonline

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