Senior Partner at Africa Legal Associates (ALA), Gabby Otchere-Darko, has slammed the Member of Parliament (MP) for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, for criticising the law firm for providing “legitimate and bona fide legal services” to West Blue Ghana Limited.
The NDC MP had castigated Mr. Otchere-Darko, a member of Ghana’s governing party, for representing West Blue Ghana Limited in order to recover GH¢187.3 million owed to it by the Government of Ghana under a contract signed on August 4, 2015 for the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to operate national single window at the country’s ports.
Mr. Okudzeto Ablakwa labeled the move as a “Kitchen Scandal,” adding that the endeavour to retrieve the money was “a tale of betrayal, bravado, double standard, and blatant rape of the public purse.”
Interestingly, the Finance Minister has not shown any commitment in paying any arrears to West Blue.
Sources told DAILY GUIDE that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, is unwilling to pay any money to the company on assumption that West Blue owned by Valentina Mintah had made a lot of money from the contract.
“She has taken too much money from Government already,” Finance Ministry sources said.
But the ALA Senior Partner said the world can only forgive MP Ablakwa for his description of the West Blue claim as a “scandal,” describing it as extremely curious.
He explained that West Blue demands are not over the termination of contract but unpaid fees for services rendered by the destination inspection company.
“Again, I wish to underscore the fact that our client has not been paid any part of the amount claimed to be owed to it under the NSW Contract. Our client’s case is not a challenge to the termination of the NSW Contract. It is simply a dispute over arrears owed for work already done and a claim for monies due it, in accordance with the express terms of the said contract between the parties.
“It is intriguing that you of all people, see as a scandal, lawyers engaged in their legitimate work of seeking to recover arrears owed to their clients, even when their claim, per your own “leaked” documents, is not, in principle, disputed by the Attorney General. I wonder how you reconcile your current stance against ALA with the claim against you by the then Attorney General when you were a member of government?”
According to him, Ablakwa, whilst serving as Deputy Minister of Education, lobbied to be paid, a contractor whose very claim was being challenged in court by the Attorney General, noting “Assuming, of course, the claim against you by your Attorney General is true.”
“If a deputy minister at the Ministry of Education (and a non-lawyer at that) could muster the moral courage and see no wrong in lobbying to be paid, a contractor whose very claim was being challenged in court at the time by the Attorney General, then the world may be forgiven for finding your description of the West Blue claim as a “scandal” extremely curious,” he stressed.
He explained that ALA was engaged by West Blue Ghana Limited on April 29, 2021 to assist the company to recover outstanding payments due it.
“We have been on this matter for more than two years now and the MoF and GRA continue to dispute the claim in spite of what we consider to be the incontrovertibility of our client’s case per the contract.
“Our client’s claim is to recover arrears owed by the MoF and GRA for services rendered to the Government of Ghana under the National Single Window and Integrated Risk Management System Contract (‘NSW contract’) dated August 4, 2015.
“Our client’s claim is founded on Clause 13.1 of the NSW Contract, which sets out without equivocation, the fees due to our client under the NSW Contract,” Gabby said and pointed out that it was a contract duly crafted and executed by the John Mahama administration, of which Mr. Ablakwa was a key member.
According to him, Clause 13.1 of the NSW Contract provides that in consideration of its services, his client shall be paid a fee equivalent to 0.35% of the final invoice CIF (Cost, Insurance, and Freight) value of import consignments entering into Ghana through the seaports, airports and land borders from time to time.
“Going strictly by the express terms of the NSW Contract, our client calculates the arrears still left outstanding to be in the sum of GH¢187,356,969.
“Indeed, a demand letter providing details of the sum of GH¢187,356,969 owed, was submitted to the Ministry of Finance on July 28, 2020 by the previous lawyers of our client, Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah,” he said.
He stated that, contrary to Ablakwa’s claim that West Blue’s contract was terminated before the claim period, West Blue continued to render services to the Government under the contract, following an extension of the said contract post December 31, 2018, instructively, a period not included in the GH¢187,356,969 claim, which is set between 2015 and 2018.
He said the MoF and GRA consistently denied the claim of his client and stated that West Blue’s fees were rather to be calculated on the total inspection fees, which is merely a constituent of the total CIF, paid on imports.
“This, if you like, constitutes the gravamen significado of the dispute. ALA has written numerous letters to the MoF and GRA to explain the legal justification of our client’s claim. Per a letter dated August 5, 2021, the Attorney General, who is the chief legal advisor to the Government, was requested to assist the parties (MoF, GRA, and our client) with a legal opinion that would clarify the legal operation of the key terms of the NSW Contract,” he asserted.
For him, this request was made pursuant to a mutual understanding between lawyers from ALA and representatives of GRA during a meeting held to discuss West Blue’s claim.
By Ernest Kofi Adu